morning has made him a little depressed, perhaps he may feel a
little for me sitting in my cheerless room, without hope and without
society. I beg your pardon, Jane, you are always good and kind, and so
was Peggy, and every one; but it was so dull--so very dull. But what I
mean is, that if Francis is moody and dispirited, as a great many
people are at times, my verses will not seem to him such a wail as to
the busy, merry world we live in. I never saw a more favourable-looking
critic."

Elsie then went to her drawer, and for the first time since she had
tied up her manuscript touched it without a sick pang at her heart. The
very sight of the enveloping brown paper had been odious to her: but
to-day she felt courage enough to untie it, and to select a few of what
she considered her best pieces for her cousin's perusal.

Much depends on the mood of the reader of poetry. Francis did not find
Elsie's sad views of life at all overdrawn, and he pointed out both to
her and to Jane many fine passages, and what he considered to be pretty
images. Here and there he found fault; but, on the whole, he said
Elsie's verses were full of promise, and she only had to wait patiently
for awhile--to observe as well as to reflect, and not to be quite so
subjective--to attain to excellence.

At the Exhibition and at the concert in the evening, Francis had again
to admire the naturally fine taste of his younger cousin, and to lament
with her that none of her talents had been cultivated. According to all
his preconceived fancies, he should have fallen in love with Elsie; but
it was not so. She was a sweet, amiable girl, with a great deal of
quickness and undeveloped talent, but she was chiefly dear to him as
Jane's sister. Elsie felt for the time restored to a better opinion of
herself, and was grateful to the person who thought well of what the
world seemed to despise. She was disposed now to do Francis justice,
and more than justice. Never had she talked with a man of finer taste
or more admirable judgment. She caught another glimpse of William
Dalzell, who was at the concert with the Rennies and Miss Wilson, and
contrasted her old favourite with her new, very much to the
disadvantage of the former.

Francis was aware that this was the person from whose attentions Jane
had been in such danger. He could scarcely conceive the possibility of
a woman of such admirable sense and such penetration as Jane forming an
attachment to one so shallow