e world" in Mr. Menteith's office in Edinburg.
He was not a very clever lad, but he was sensible and steady, and
blessed with that practical mother-wit which is often better than
brains. The minister, though he had been bemoaning his boy's "little
Latin and less Greek," and comparing Alick's learning very
disadvantageously with that of the earl, to whom Mr. Cardross confided
all his troubles, nevertheless seemed both proud and hopeful of his
eldest son, the heir to his honest name, which Alick would now carry out
into a far wider world than that of the poor minister of Cairnforth,
and doubtless, in good time, transmit honorably to a third generation.

"Yes," added the father, when innumerable castles in the air had been
built and rebuilt for Alick's future, "I'll not deny that my lad is a
good lad. He is the hope of the house, and he knows it. It's little of
worldly gear that he'll get for many a day, and he tells me he will have
to work from morning till night; but he rather enjoys the prospect than
not."

"No wonder. Work must be a happy thing," said, with a sigh, the young
Earl of Cairnforth.

Helen's heart smote her for having let the conversation drift into this
direction, as it did occasionally when, from their long familiarity with
him, they forgot how he must feel about many things, natural enough to
them, but to him, unto whom the outer world, with all its duties,
energies, enjoyments, could never be any thing but a name, full of
sharpest pain. She said, after a few minutes watching of the grave,
still face--not exactly sad, but only very still, very grave--

"Just look at papa, how happy he is among those books you sent for!
Your plan of his arranging the library is the delight of his life."

"Is it? I am so glad," said the earl, brightening up at once. 'What a
good thing I thought of it!"

"You always do think of every thing that is good and kind," said Helen,
softly.

"Thank you," and the shadow passed away, as any trifling pleasure always
had power to make it pass. Sometimes Helen speculated vaguely on what a
grand sort of man the earl would have been had he been like other people
--how cheerful, how active, how energetic and wise. But then one
never knows how far circumstances create and unfold character. We often
learn as much by what is withheld as by what is enjoyed.

"Helen," he said, moving his chair a little nearer her--he had
brought one good thing from London, a self-acting cha