y, that any congregation could sit profitably within sight of
what--not knowing the love that sent it--would seem like a temptation
and a vanity before men. Sables, indeed, real Russian sables, appear a
strange covering for these old shoulders.

"It was about two hours after it came that Mrs. Trafford called in to
see me, and Jeanie would have it that I'd go into the room with my grand
new cloak on me; and sure enough I did, Tony, trying all the while not
to seem as if it was anything strange or uncommon, but just the sort of
wrapper I 'd throw round me of a cold morning. But it would n't do, my
dear Tony. I was half afraid to sit down on it, and I kept turning out
the purple-satin lining so often that Mrs. Trafford said at last, 'Will
you forgive my admiration of your cloak, Mrs. Butler, but I never saw
one so beautiful before;' and then I told her who it was that sent it;
and she got very red and then very pale, and then walked to the window,
and said something about a shower that was threatening; though, sooth to
say, Tony, the only threat of rain I could see was in her own blue
eyes. But she turned about gayly and said, 'We are going away, Mrs.
Butler,--going abroad;' and before I could ask why or where, she told
me in a hurried sort of way that her sister Isabella had been ordered
to pass a winter in some warm climate, and that they were going to try
Italy. She said it all in a strange quick voice, as if she did n't like
to talk of it, and wanted it over; but she grew quite herself again
when she said that the gardener would take care that my flowers
came regularly, and that Sir Arthur and Lady Lyle would be more than
gratified if I would send up for anything I liked out of the garden.
'Don't forget that the melons were all of Tony's sowing, Mrs. Butler,'
said she, smiling; and I could have kissed her for the way she said it.

"There were many other kind things she said, and in a way, too, that
made them more than kind; so that when she went away, I sat thinking
if it was not a temptation to meet a nature like hers,--so sweet, so
lovely, and yet so worldly; for in all she spoke, Tony, there was never
a word dropped of what sinful creatures we are, and what a thorny path
it is that leads us to the better life before us.

"I was full of her visit, and everything she said, when Dr. Stewart
dropped in to say that they had been down again at the Burnside to try
and get him to let Dolly go abroad with them. 'I never lik