, as the tears burst from her
eyes, "be not angry with me, nor suppose that any ungenerous repining
against our altered lot finds a place in my heart. God knows that I
grieve not for myself; in the humble sphere in which I am placed, I have
found true contentment, greater, perhaps, than higher fortunes would
have given me; for here my duties are better defined, and my sense of
them is clearer. If I feel sorrow, it is for you and my dear sister,
for you, papa, who suffer from many a privation; for her, who might well
adorn a more exalted station. But for me the lame Nelly, as children
used to call me" She was not suffered to finish her speech, for already
her father had clasped his arms around her, and Kate, in a gush of
tears, was sobbing on his shoulder.

"Where's the doctor? what's become of him?" said Dalton, as, recovering
from his emotion, he wished to give a different direction to their
thoughts.

"He went away half an hour ago, papa," said Kate. "He always goes off
without saying good-bye, whenever there is a word said about family."

"I noticed that, too, my dear," said Dalton, "and I would n't wonder
if he came of low people; not but he 's a kind creature, and mighty
good-hearted."

Nelly could probably have suggested a better reason for the doctor's
conduct, but she prudently forbore from again alluding to a theme
already too painful.

With the reader's permission, we will now follow him as, with a gesture
of impatience, he abruptly left the room on the very first mention by
Dalton of that genealogical tree in whose branches he loved to perch
himself.

"An old fool!" muttered Grounsell, as he passed downstairs, "an old
fool, that no experience will ever make wiser! Well may his native
country be a stumbling-block to legislators, if his countrymen be all
like him, with his family pride and pretension! Confound him! can't
he see that there 's no independence for a man in debt, and no true
self-respect left for him who can't pay his tailor? For himself there's
no help; but the poor girls! he'll be the ruin of them. Kate is already
a willing listener to his nonsensical diatribes about blood and family;
and poor Nelly's spirits will be broken in the hopeless conflict with
his folly! Just so, that will be the end of it; he will turn the head of
one, and break the heart of the other; and yet, all the while, he firmly
believes he is leaving a far better heritage behind him in this empty
pride, than if he could