ry glad to see tears. 'I cannot bear to go home!'
presently said Emma.

'Have you thought how badly all the poor people must be getting on
without you? All your children--it is half a year since you saw them!'

Emma groaned.

'Yes, it is bad enough at first. You have had a heavy trial indeed, poor
Emma; but what is a trial but something to try us? Would it not be more
manful to face the pain of going home, and to take up your allotted
work? Then you would be submitting, not to a self-made rule, but to
Heaven's own appointment.'

Was Emma's mind disengaged enough for curiosity, or did she want to quit
the subject! She said--'You have had a trial of this kind yourself?'

Theodora had a struggle. To tell the whole seemed to her as uncalled
for as painful; and yet there must be reciprocity if there is to be
confidence, and she could not bear to advise like one who had never
erred. She therefore confessed how her happiness had been wrecked by her
own fault, and related the subsequent misery; how Violet had repelled
the disposition to exalt her rather than her parents, and had well-nigh
forced her abroad, and how there in the dreary waste a well of peace had
sprung up, and had been with her ever since.

Short as Theodora tried to make the story she so much disliked, it
lasted till they were almost at home. It had its effect. To be thrown
over upon Lady Martindale and Mrs. Nesbit at Baden could not but appear
to Emma a worse lot than to be left to her own mother and Rickworth,
which, after all, she loved so well; and the promise of peace to be won
by following appointed paths was a refreshing sound.

She had, this whole time, never thought of her mother's feelings, and
the real affection she entertained was once more awake. Besides, to
see how Theodora represented their scheme, not only shook her faith in
Theresa, but alarmed her sense of right on her own account. In short,
though she said no word, there was a warmth in her meeting with Lady
Elizabeth, on their return, that gave Theodora hopes.

Next morning came a note.

'My Dear Theodora,--I have decided to go home at once. I could not
rest without Theresa's explanation, so I have written to her, and I had
rather have it by letter than in person. I talked till two o'clock last
night with mamma, and we go home at twelve to-day. Tell Violet we will
come in for a few moments to take leave.

'Your affectionate,

'E. E. B.'

'There is one thing to be thankful f