Oh, I was so glad
they came! That was a sight that did one good! And then, I fancy Mr.
Rivers is a wee bit afraid of his brother-in-law, for he begged papa
and Flora to come home and dine with them, but Flora was engaged to Mrs.
Hoxton."

"Ha! Flora!" said Norman, as if he rather enjoyed her losing something
through her going to Mrs. Hoxton. "I suppose she would have given the
world to go!"

"I was so sorry," said Ethel; "but I had to go instead, and it was
delightful. Papa made great friends with Lord Cosham, while Mr. Rivers
went to sleep after dinner, and I had such a delightful wandering with
Meta, listening to the nightingales, and hearing all about it. I never
knew Meta so well before."

"And there was no more question of her going back?" said Norman.

"No, indeed! She said, when her uncle asked in joke, on Monday morning,
whether she had packed up to return with him, Mr. Rivers was quite
nervously alarmed the first moment, lest she should intend it."

"That little Meta," said Margaret. "Her wishes for substantial use have
been pretty well realised!"

"Um!" said Ethel.

"What do you mean?" said Norman sharply. "I should call her present
position the perfection of feminine usefulness."

"So perhaps it is," said Ethel; "but though she does it beautifully,
and is very valuable, to be the mistress of a great luxurious house like
that does not seem to me the subject of aspirations like Meta's."

"Think of the contrast with what she used to be," said Margaret gently,
"the pretty, gentle, playful toy that her father brought her up to
be, living a life of mere accomplishments and self-indulgence; kind
certainly, but never so as to endure any disagreeables, or make any
exertion. But as soon as she entered into the true spirit of our
calling, did she not begin to seek to live the sterner life, and train
herself in duty? The quiet way she took always seemed to me the great
beauty of it. She makes duties of her accomplishments by making them
loving obedience to her father."

"Not that they are not pleasant to her?" interposed Norman.

"Certainly," said Margaret, "but it gives them the zest, and confidence
that they are right, which one could not have in such things merely for
one's own amusement."

"Yes," said Ethel, "she does more; she told me one day that one reason
she liked sketching was, that looking into nature always made psalms and
hymns sing in her ears, and so with her music and her beautiful copies