s.
Richard is very good, but he is so dreadfully hard to stir up, and
what's worse, so very much afraid of papa, that while he is thinking
about opportunities, they will all go by, and then it will be Easter,
and nothing done!"

"He is not so much afraid of papa as he was," said Margaret. "He has
felt himself useful and a comfort, and papa is gentler; and that has
cheered him out of the desponding way that kept him back from proposing
anything."

"Perhaps," said Ethel; "but I wish it was you. Can't you? you always
know how to manage."

"No; it is Richard's affair, and he must do as he thinks fit. Don't
sigh, dear Ethel--perhaps he may soon speak, and, if not, you can be
preparing in a quiet way all the time. Don't you remember how dear mamma
used to tell us that things, hastily begun, never turn out well?"

"But this is not hasty. I've been thinking about it these six weeks,"
said Ethel. "If one does nothing but think, it is all no better than a
vision. I want to be doing."

"Well, you can be doing--laying a sound foundation," said Margaret. "The
more you consider, and the wiser you make yourself, the better it will
be when you do set to work."

"You mean by curing myself of my slovenly ways and impatient temper?"

"I don't know that I was exactly thinking of that," said Margaret, "but
that ought to be the way. If we are not just the thing in our niche at
home, I don't think we can do much real good elsewhere."

"It would be hollow, show-goodness," said Ethel. "Yes, that is true;
and it comes across me now, and then what a horrid wretch I am, to be
wanting to undertake so much, when I leave so much undone. But, do you
know, Margaret, there's no one such a help in those ways as Richard.
Though he is so precise, he is never tiresome. He makes me see things,
and do them neatly, without plaguing me, and putting me in a rage. I'm
not ready to bite off my own fingers, or kick all the rattle-traps over
and leave them, as I am when Miss Winter scolds me, or nurse, or even
Flora sometimes; but it is as if I was gratifying him, and his funny
little old bachelor tidyisms divert me; besides, he teaches me the
theory, and never lays hold of my poor fingers, and, when they won't
bend the wrong way, calls them frogs."

"He is a capital master for you," said Margaret, much amused and
pleased, for Richard was her especial darling, and she triumphed in any
eulogy from those who ordinarily were too apt to regard his dullness
w