an only
_feel_.

You, who have seen her in our home, can realize what she was to my
family, but none can know what she was to me: companion, friend,
guide! My stay and support through long years of trial, she is
taken from me just as prosperity is dawning on me, and I was hoping
to repay, by a life of devotion, some part of what she had borne
and suffered on my account. Another angel has been welcomed in
heaven, but I am left here alone--alone with my grief and my
remorse!

My son is inconsolable, and even little Selly seems to realize the
full extent of her loss. The poor little thing will not leave me
for a moment. She is now the only comfort I have. Miss Walley has
been unremitting in her kindness and attention, taking the burden
of everything upon herself. Indeed, I do not know what I should
have done without her.

Time may temper my affliction, but _now_, my dear friend, I am not

ROBERT PRESTON.

Nothing worthy of special mention occurred to the persons whose history
I am relating till about a year after the death of Mrs. Preston. Then,
one day late in the autumn, I received information of her husband's
approaching marriage with the governess. In the letter which invited me
to be present at the ceremony, Preston said: 'No one can ever fill the
place in my heart that is occupied, and ever will be occupied by the
memory of my sainted wife; but Miss Walley has rendered herself
indispensable to me and my family. My studious habits and ignorance of
business made me, as you know, even in my full health and strength, a
poor manager; and during the past year, grief has so broken my spirits
that I have been utterly unfitted for attending to the commonest duties.
But for Miss Walley, everything would have gone to waste and ruin. With
the efficiency of a business man, she has attended to my household,
overseen my plantation, and managed my entire affairs. In the first
moments of my bereavement, when grief so entirely overwhelmed me that I
saw no one, I did not know to what censurious remark her disinterested
devotion to my interests was subjecting her; but recently I have
realized the impropriety of a young, unmarried woman occupying the
position she holds in my household. Miss Walley, also, has felt this,
and some time since notified me, though with evident reluctance, that
she felt it imperatively necessary to leave my servi