d to him,
Violet will never want for flowers.'

'It is so exactly what he considers himself,' said Jane.

'Except his being allowed,' said Arthur. ''Tis we that are there on
sufferance.'

Miss Piper was seen advancing on the same walk, and Violet was
uncomfortable, dreading to see her treated as an inferior; but to her
great satisfaction, Arthur addressed the little lady in his cordial
manner, and Theodora congratulated her on being out of doors on this
fine evening.

'Mrs. Nesbit wished me to ask Mr. Harrison for a frond of the new
Trichomanes,' said Miss Piper.

'You will find him somewhere near the forcing-house,' said Theodora;
'but pray don't hurry in. I am going to my aunt's room, and you should
go and look at the Japan lilies, they are fine enough to make even me
admire them.' Then running after her to enforce her words, 'mind you
stay out--be quite at rest till dinner-time--I have scarcely been with
my aunt to-day. I am sure a walk will do you good.'

The kind solicitude went deep into the affections of the lonely little
woman. Violet longed for anything like such notice; then, in a state
between wonder, delight, and disappointment, went to her room to attempt
a description of the fairy land which she had been visiting, and to
enjoy the splendours by thinking how much it would gratify her mother
and sisters to hear of her sharing them.

Mrs. Nesbit greeted Theodora with exclamations on Miss Piper's
tardiness, and she explained in the authoritative way which she alone
ventured to use towards her aunt; then, in a tone of conciliation, spoke
of the garden and the beauty of the Japan lilies.

'Harrison grows too many; they are losing their rarity, and look like a
weed.'

'They are hardy, are they not?' said Theodora, maliciously. 'I shall get
some for my school garden.'

'That is your way of making everything common, and depreciating all that
is choice.'

'No,' said Theodora, 'I would have beauty as widely enjoyed and as
highly appreciated as possible.'

'And pray, if all privileges are extended to the lower classes, what is
left to the higher orders?'

'Themselves,' said Theodora, proudly. 'No, aunt, we only lower ourselves
by exclusiveness. It is degrading to ourselves and our tastes to make
them badges of vanity. Let them be freely partaken, we shall be first
still. The masses cannot mount higher without raising us.'

'A levelling theory,' said Mrs. Nesbit.

'No, exalting. Has Latin and Greek