urnums. The house also is occupied: at
the wide-open parlour windows gay groups are standing. These are the
patrons and teachers, who are to swell the procession. In the parson's
croft, behind the rectory, are the musicians of the three parish bands,
with their instruments. Fanny and Eliza, in the smartest of caps and
gowns, and the whitest of aprons, move amongst them, serving out quarts
of ale, whereof a stock was brewed very sound and strong some weeks
since by the rector's orders, and under his special superintendence.
Whatever he had a hand in must be managed handsomely. "Shabby doings" of
any description were not endured under his sanction. From the erection
of a public building, a church, school, or court-house, to the cooking
of a dinner, he still advocated the lordly, liberal, and effective. Miss
Keeldar was like him in this respect, and they mutually approved each
other's arrangements.

Caroline and Shirley were soon in the midst of the company. The former
met them very easily for her. Instead of sitting down in a retired
corner, or stealing away to her own room till the procession should be
marshalled, according to her wont, she moved through the three
parlours, conversed and smiled, absolutely spoke once or twice ere she
was spoken to, and, in short, seemed a new creature. It was Shirley's
presence which thus transformed her; the view of Miss Keeldar's air and
manner did her a world of good. Shirley had no fear of her kind, no
tendency to shrink from, to avoid it. All human beings--men, women, or
children--whom low breeding or coarse presumption did not render
positively offensive, were welcome enough to her--some much more so than
others, of course; but, generally speaking, till a man had indisputably
proved himself bad and a nuisance, Shirley was willing to think him good
and an acquisition, and to treat him accordingly. This disposition made
her a general favourite, for it robbed her very raillery of its sting,
and gave her serious or smiling conversation a happy charm; nor did it
diminish the value of her intimate friendship, which was a distinct
thing from this social benevolence--depending, indeed, on quite a
different part of her character. Miss Helstone was the choice of her
affection and intellect; the Misses Pearson, Sykes, Wynne, etc., etc.,
only the profiteers by her good-nature and vivacity.

Donne happened to come into the drawing-room while Shirley, sitting on
the sofa, formed the centre of a