e of my eye, Miss."

"I have felt anxious about them sometimes of late, and have thought of
offering to take care of them myself; but there's Madam Gerot in these
rooms every week; I could hide nothing from her lynx eyes. I think I
might do without a governess now--don't you, after having had a proposal
from a General?"

"Your mamma thinks she perfects your manners, Miss."

"All nonsense! I never have any grace or manner when she is in sight.
Minny, the truth is, I am prettier and more graceful when I am right
here with you, than I would be with all the French dancing-masters and
ornamental governesses in the world."

"Bless your dear heart!"

"Thank you, Minn; nobody ever blessed me save you and General Delville;
he blessed me to-day in such a beautiful way, it went straight to my
heart. Oh, if it is so sweet to be blessed by the rich, what must it be,
Minny, to be blessed by the poor?"

Minny was silent.

"If ever I get out of fashionable society, Minn, I shall never court it
again. It is a heartless sphere! I would sooner be a stone than human,
with no humanity beyond flesh and blood, and that cast in a fashionable
mould."

"Your mamma is a fashionable woman, Miss, and seems very happy."

"It is only seeming, Minn. She has more misery over an ill-fitting
dress, an unshapely shoe, or an awkward glove, than you and I have in an
age. I was born out of my sphere, I know I was; I ought to have been
poor."

"You may be, one of these days, Miss."

"How so, Minn? What do you mean?"

"Disinherited."

"Oh, no! that will never be, I am certain."

"But you'd not be unhappy if it should happen?"

"Only for Bernard."

"I am very happy to hear this."

"Dear Minnie, you have so many foolish fears!"

"It is better to think of these things."

"True enough. Good night, Minn!"

"Good night. You are going to sleep early, Miss?"

"So as to have bright eyes in the morning, dear."

Lonely, without her mistress, Minnie also prepared for sleep; and that
night Bernard's letter was placed beneath _her_ pillow, and her dreams
were of him.

Della, as she had hoped, dreamed of General Delville. All night long was
his noble face before her, wearing that radiant expression which had
illuminated it when he bade God bless her. Never afterwards, in all her
waking hours, whether in joy or gloom, light or darkness, did Della
cease to remember him as she dreamed of him there with the halo of that
blessing circling him and h