. "Have you enjoyed it at all?
It was hard for you to have to see so many strangers after so trying a
day."

"Rather hard," said Jane, with quivering lips. "Life altogether is much
harder than I had imagined it to be. I want Elsie very much to-night;
but I will see her as soon as I can possibly get home."

"You do not mean to go so soon? you have done nothing satisfactory as
yet. We must make attempts in some other direction."

"I have made up my mind," said Jane; "I will apply for the situation I
despised this morning. People outside of asylums seem to be as mad and
more cruel. I will write my application to-night, and it will go by the
first post."

"Do not be so precipitate; there is no need to apply before Tuesday,
and I believe even Wednesday would do. Spend the intervening days in
town; something suitable may be advertised in newspapers. You have not
yet applied at any registry offices. You said Rome was not built in a
day, yet a day's failure makes you despair. Do not lose heart all at
once, my dear cousin. Though I never had anything half so hard to bear
or to anticipate as you have now, I have had my troubles, and have got
over them, as you will in the end."

The tone of Francis' voice gave Jane a little courage; but she was
resolute in writing out her application before she went to bed. It was
beautifully written and clearly expressed. She asserted her
qualifications with firmness, and yet with modesty, and gave
satisfactory references to prove her own statements. Of all the
applicants, she was the youngest; but Francis was sure that her letter
would be the best of the fifty.

Though Jane thought this decisive step would set her mind at rest,
sleep was impossible to her after such excitement, fatigue, and
disappointment; and the solitude she had longed for only gave her leave
to turn over all the painful circumstances of her position without let
or hindrance. Never had she felt so bitterly towards her uncle. In vain
did she try to recall his past kindness to soften her heart towards
him; for all pleasant memories only deepened the gloom of her present
friendless, hopeless poverty; and the prospect of her inevitable
separation from Elsie, which had never been distinctly apprehended
before, was the saddest of all the thoughts that haunted the night
watches.

Francis had been invited with Jane to spend the day with the Rennies,
and the cousins went to church with the family. Jane heard none of the
sermo