manuscript of his own verses to which I have referred--a volume
exquisitely written, and containing, certainly, the outcome of the best
that was in him: he did not tell her that he had copied them all with
such care and neatness, and had the book so lovelily bound, expressly
and only for her eyes..

News of something that seemed likely to suit her ideas for Letty at
length came to Mrs. Wardour's ears, whereupon she thought it time to
prepare the girl for the impending change. One day, therefore, as she
herself sat knitting one sock for Godfrey, and Letty darning another,
she opened the matter.

"I am getting old, Letty," she said, "and you can't be here always. You
are a thoughtless creature, but I suppose you have the sense to see
that?"

"Yes, indeed, aunt," answered Letty.

"It is high time you should be thinking," Mrs. Wardour went on, "how
you are to earn your bread. If you left it till I was gone, you would
find it very awkward, for you would have to leave Thornwick at once,
and I don't know who would take you while you were looking out. I must
see you comfortably settled before I go."

"Yes, aunt."

"There are not many things you could do."

"No, aunt; very few. But I should make a better housemaid than most--I
do believe that."

"I am glad to find you willing to work; but we shall be able, I trust,
to do a little better for you than that. A situation as housemaid would
reflect little credit on my pains for you--would hardly correspond to
the education you have had."

Mrs. Wardour referred to the fact that Letty was for about a year a
day--boarder at a ladies' school in Testbridge, where no immortal soul,
save that of a genius, which can provide its own sauce, could have
taken the least interest in the chaff and chopped straw that composed
the provender.

"It is true," her aunt went on, "you might have made a good deal more
of it, if you had cared to do your best; but, such as you are, I trust
we shall find you a very tolerable situation as governess."

At the word, Letty's heart ran half-way up her throat. A more dreadful
proposal she could not have imagined. She felt, and was, utterly
insufficient for--indeed, incapable of such an office. She felt she
knew nothing: how was she to teach anything? Her heart seemed to grow
gray within her. By nature, from lack of variety of experience, yet
more from daily repression of her natural joyousness, she was
exceptionally apprehensive where anything was re