hear a sermon, I'll go to church."

Mr. Ellis made no answer, but, lifting his babe from its mother's lap,
commenced tossing it in the air and singing a pleasant nursery ditty.
Caroline sat in a moody state of mind for some minutes, and then left
the room to give some directions about tea. On her return, Ellis said,
in as cheerful a voice as if no unpleasant incident had transpired,

"Oh! I had forgotten to say, Cara, that Mr. Hemming and his wife have
returned from Boston. They will be around to see us some evening this
week."

"Hum-m--well." This was the cold, moody response of Mrs. Ellis.

"Mr. Hemming says that his wife's health is much better than it was."

"Does he?" very coldly uttered.

"He seemed very cheerful."

Mrs. Ellis made no comment upon this remark of her husband, and the
latter said nothing more.

Tea was soon announced, and the husband and wife went, with their two
oldest children, to partake of their evening meal. A cloud still hung
over Caroline's features. Try as Ellis would to feel indifferent to his
wife's unhappy state of mind, his sensitiveness to the fact became more
and more painful every moment. The interest at first felt in his
children, gradually died away, and, by the time supper was over, he was
in a moody and fretted state, yet had he manfully striven to keep his
mind evenly balanced.

On returning to the sitting-room, the sight of the book he had brought
home caused Ellis to make a strong effort to regain his
self-possession. He had set his heart on reading that book to Cara,
because he was sure she would get interested therein; and he hoped, by
introducing this better class of reading, to awaken a healthier
appetite for mental food than she now possessed. So he occupied himself
with a newspaper, while his wife undressed the children and put them to
bed. It seemed to him a long time before she was ready to sit down with
her sewing at the table, upon which the soft, pleasant light of their
shaded lamp was falling. At last she came, with her small work-basket
in her mind. Topmost of all its contents was a French novel. When Ellis
saw this, there came doubts and misgivings across his heart.

"Cara," said he quickly, and in a tone of forced cheerfulness, taking
up, at the same time, his volume of Prescott,--"I brought this book
home on purpose to read aloud. I dipped into it, to-day, and found it
so exceedingly interesting, that I deferred the pleasure of its perusal
until I c