hip went on in as important a tone as he could--

"And--and I hear, Miss Harvey, that you have a great influence over
these children's parents."

"I am afraid some one has misinformed your lordship," said Grace, in a
low voice.

"Ah!" quoth Scoutbush, in a tone meant to be reassuring; "it is quite
proper in you to say so. What eyes she has! and what hair! and what
hands, too!" (This was, of course, spoken mentally.) "But we know
better; and we want you to speak to them, whenever you can, about
keeping their houses clean, and all that, in case the cholera should
come." And Scoutbush stopped. It was a quaint errand enough; and
besides, as he told Mellot frankly, "I could think of nothing but those
wonderful eyes of hers, and how like they were to La Signora's."

Grace had been looking at the ground all the while. Now she threw upon
him one of her sudden, startled looks, and answered slowly, as her eyes
dropped again:

"I have, my lord; but they will not listen to me."

"Won't listen to you? Then to whom will they listen?"

"To God, when He speaks Himself," said she, still looking on the ground.
Scoutbush winced uneasily. He was not accustomed to solemn words, spoken
so solemnly.

"Do you hear this, Campbell? Miss Harvey has been talking to these
people already, and they won't hear her."

"Miss Harvey, I dare say, is not astonished at that. It is the usual
fate of those who try to put a little common sense into their
fellow-men."

"Well, and I shall, at all events, go off and give them my mind on the
matter; though I suppose (with a glance at Grace) I can't expect to be
heard where Miss Harvey has not been."

"Oh, my lord," cried Grace, "if you would but speak--" And there she
stopped; for was it her place to tell him his duty? No doubt he had
wiser people than her to counsel him.

But the moment the party left the school, Grace dropped into her chair;
her head fell on the table, and she burst into an agony of weeping,
which brought the whole school round her.

"Oh, my darlings! my darlings!" cried she at last, looking up, and
clasping them to her by twos and threes; "Is there no way of saving you?
No way! Then we must make the more haste to be good, and be all ready
when Jesus comes to take us." And shaking off her passion with one
strong effort, she began teaching those children as she had never taught
them before, with a voice, a look, as of Stephen himself when he saw the
heavens opened.

For that bu