of my
meaning. I excuse myself by the thought that to try to put into such
noble keeping the dearest treasure that I ever possessed, is a duty
which justifies my departure from any conventional rule. I am, Miss
Elserly, as ever, your worshiper. More than this I cannot dare to think
of being, after my own fall and the overpowering sense I have of the
superior worth of another. God bless you.

"ANDREW MALLING."

Mr. Brown hastily laid the letter aside, and again called upon Miss
Elserly.

Again she met him with many signs of the embarrassment whose cause he
now understood so well; yet as he was about to deliver an awkward
apology a single look from under Miss Elserly's eyebrows--only a glance,
but as searching and eloquent as it was swift--stopped his tongue. He
took Miss Elserly's hand in his own and stammered:

"I came to plead for the major."

"And I shan't listen to you," said she, raising her eyes with so tender
a light in them that Hubert Brown immediately hid the eyes themselves in
his heart, lest the light should be lost.

BUDGE AND TODDIE AT AUNT ALICE'S.

[_The following is quoted, by permission, from Mr. Habberton's popular
book_, "OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN," _published by_ G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS,
_New York_.]

Mrs. Burton's birthday dawned brightly, and it is not surprising that,
as it was her first natal anniversary since her marriage to a man who
had no intention or ability to cease being a lover--it is not surprising
that her ante-breakfast moments were too fully and happily occupied to
allow her to even think of two little boys who had already impressed
upon her their willingness and general ability to think for themselves.
As for the young men themselves, they awoke with the lark, and with a
heavy sense of responsibility also. The room of Mrs. Burton's
chambermaid joined their own, and the occupant of that room having been
charged by her mistress with the general care of the boys between dark
and daylight, she had gradually lost that faculty for profound slumber
which so notably distinguishes the domestic servant from all other human
beings. She had grown accustomed to wake at the first sound in the boys'
room, and on the morning of her mistress's birthday the first sound she
heard was: "Tod!"

No response could be heard; but a moment later the chambermaid heard:

"T--o--o--od!"

"Ah--h--h--ow!" drawled a voice, not so sleepily but it could sound
aggrieved.

"Wake up, dear old Toddie, b