nder this step necessary, but that circumstances of
which she would not speak made her home unhappy and most unattractive to
her. All this she said in a calm and perfectly unexcited manner, as if
relating the details of a matter of business. For a moment I trembled
lest she had come to make me her confidante in a family-quarrel; but I
was soon relieved from this apprehension, for, after she had stated the
fact, she referred to it no more, but went on to speak upon general
subjects, which she did with great intelligence. Her good sense
impressed me so much that before she left the house I had engaged her.

"A few days afterwards she was established here, and had adapted herself
to all our modes of life in a way that astonished me. She went about all
her duties quietly, and with the greatest order and precision. Her
classes were the most orderly in the school, and in a short time her
authority was acknowledged by all the girls. There were few who did not
admire her, and not one who dared to set her at defiance. By degrees her
quiet, unobtrusive industry won upon my confidence; I felt glad to show
by charges of responsibility my regard for a person of so sound a
judgment and so reserved a temper, and very soon I had given over to her
care the supervision of English books for the girls' reading, the
posting and receiving from the post-office of all the English letters,
both my own and those of the English girls in the _pension_. During the
two years and a half of her stay here, these duties were fulfilled by
Lina with unremitting care and punctuality.

"About this time I had commenced a correspondence, through Lina, with a
Mrs. E. Baxter, of Bristol, in England, who had, it seemed, known Lina
for many years, and who, understanding, as she mysteriously hinted, how
unhappy her home must be, begged her to come and live with her and
undertake for a time the education of her little girl, a child of ten.
Here are her letters; this is one of the first: you see how warmly, how
affectionately, she speaks of Lina, and how delicately she made this
proposal, 'so that dear Lina's sensitive, proud nature might not be able
to imagine itself wounded.'

"As Mrs. Baxter offered her a much larger salary than I gave her, I told
Lina that I thought she ought to accept the offer of her friend. She
quietly and firmly declined.

"'Miss Dale,' I said, 'you must not stand in the way of your own good
out of any sense of obligation to me. I cannot