uffered to do herself this wrong. He
smiled a little when Aunt Martha, hoping to move him, dwelt earnestly on
her dear Essie's views of life, her plans of usefulness, and her desire
above all things to do some good in the world. It was all right, he
said, just what he should expect from a girl brought up by a good woman
like Aunt Martha. But all the same she was only a child, and she could
not know whether she cared enough for Mr Maxwell to be happy in doing
her life's work in his company.

Even when Miss Martha in her eagerness betrayed how long the thought of
her niece's engagement had been familiar to her, he only laughed, though
he saw that he had a good right to be angry, and he stood firm to his
first determination that for two years at least there should be no
engagement. Essie must have more experience of life; she must visit her
mother's relations, and see more of the world. He intended she should
spend the next winter with her aunt in New York, and he would not have
her hampered by any engagement, out of which, if she should find that
she had mistaken her own heart, trouble might spring. He was firm, and
poor Miss Martha was heart-broken at the turn which affairs had taken.

Not so her niece. She had no words with her father with regard to the
matter, but she gave her aunt to understand that she considered a mere
formal engagement a matter of little consequence where true and loving
hearts were concerned. She must not disobey her father, but time would
show that he had been mistaken and not she.

"And after all, auntie, a year, or even two, does not make so much
difference, and I rather like the idea of spending the winter with Aunt
Esther in New York."

Aunt Martha sighed. She did not like the idea at all. She would miss
her darling, and she had no great confidence in her Aunt Esther, and she
dreaded some of the influences to which the child must be exposed, for
she was little more than a child, Aunt Martha acknowledged, a wise and
good child indeed, but one never could know what might come in the
course of two years to change her views of life. And altogether, the
dear old lady was not so hopeful as she felt she ought to be, knowing as
she so well did, that our days and our ways are all ordered by a higher
wisdom than our own.

Miss Essie was not downhearted; on the contrary, her sweetness and
resignation in the presence of her aunt's sorrow and anxiety were
beautiful to see. She acknowledge