much better it will be for me to
go into Mr. Bish's office? Harry Bish has spoken to his father about it."

Mrs. Browne sighed.

"What will Mr. Buxton say?" asked she, dolefully.

"Say! Why don't you see it was he who first put it into my head, by telling
me that first Christmas holidays, that I should be his agent. That would be
something, would it not? Harry Bish says he thinks a thousand a-year might
ha made of it."

His loud, decided, rapid talking overpowered Mrs. Browne; but she resigned
herself to his wishes with more regrets than she had ever done before. It
was not the first case in which fluent declamation has taken the place of
argument.

Edward was articled to Mr. Bish, and thus gained his point. There was no
one with power to resist his wishes, except his mother and Mr. Buxton. The
former had long acknowledged her son's will as her law; and the latter,
though surprised and almost disappointed at a change of purpose which he
had never anticipated in his plans for Edward's benefit, gave his consent,
and even advanced some of the money requisite for the premium.

Maggie looked upon this change with mingled feelings. She had always from a
child pictured Edward to herself as taking her father's place. When she had
thought of him as a man, it was as contemplative, grave, and gentle, as she
remembered her father. With all a child's deficiency of reasoning power,
she had never considered how impossible it was that a selfish, vain,
and impatient boy could become a meek, humble, and pious man, merely by
adopting a profession in which such qualities are required. But now, at
sixteen, she was beginning to understand all this. Not by any process of
thought, but by something more like a correct feeling, she perceived that
Edward would never be the true minister of Christ. So, more glad and
thankful than sorry, though sorrow mingled with her sentiments, she learned
the decision that he was to be an attorney.

Frank Buxton all this time was growing up into a young man. The hopes both
of father and mother were bound up in him; and, according to the difference
in their characters was the difference in their hopes. It seemed, indeed,
probable that Mr. Buxton, who was singularly void of worldliness or
ambition for himself, would become worldly and ambitious for his son. His
hopes for Frank were all for honor and distinction here. Mrs. Buxton's
hopes were prayers. She was fading away, as light fades into darkness on a
s