r! when you behold an aspect for whose
constant gloom and frown you cannot account, whose unvarying cloud
exasperates you by its apparent causelessness, be sure that there is a
canker somewhere, and a canker not the less deeply corroding because
concealed.

Miss Mann felt that she was understood partly, and wished to be
understood further; for, however old, plain, humble, desolate, afflicted
we may be, so long as our hearts preserve the feeblest spark of life,
they preserve also, shivering near that pale ember, a starved, ghostly
longing for appreciation and affection. To this extenuated spectre,
perhaps, a crumb is not thrown once a year, but when ahungered and
athirst to famine--when all humanity has forgotten the dying tenant of a
decaying house--Divine mercy remembers the mourner, and a shower of
manna falls for lips that earthly nutriment is to pass no more. Biblical
promises, heard first in health, but then unheeded, come whispering to
the couch of sickness; it is felt that a pitying God watches what all
mankind have forsaken. The tender compassion of Jesus is recalled and
relied on; the faded eye, gazing beyond time, sees a home, a friend, a
refuge in eternity.

Miss Mann, drawn on by the still attention of her listener, proceeded to
allude to circumstances in her past life. She spoke like one who tells
the truth--simply, and with a certain reserve; she did not boast, nor
did she exaggerate. Caroline found that the old maid had been a most
devoted daughter and sister, an unwearied watcher by lingering
deathbeds; that to prolonged and unrelaxing attendance on the sick the
malady that now poisoned her own life owed its origin; that to one
wretched relative she had been a support and succour in the depths of
self-earned degradation, and that it was still her hand which kept him
from utter destitution. Miss Helstone stayed the whole evening, omitting
to pay her other intended visit; and when she left Miss Mann it was with
the determination to try in future to excuse her faults; never again to
make light of her peculiarities or to laugh at her plainness; and, above
all things, not to neglect her, but to come once a week, and to offer
her, from one human heart at least, the homage of affection and respect.
She felt she could now sincerely give her a small tribute of each
feeling.

Caroline, on her return, told Fanny she was very glad she had gone out,
as she felt much better for the visit. The next day she failed no