zed her duty and
refused to remain at home. One cannot find happiness if one moves out
of one's allotted niche; but of course you know all this better than
I, being a clergyman. And, oh! how beautifully you spoke to us last
Sunday!" finished Nan, remembering all at once that she was usurping
his place and preaching a little sermon of her own.

"Never mind that," he replied, impatiently: "tell me what you mean.
There is something behind your speech: you think I am wrong in pitying
poor Grace so much?"

"If you ask me so plainly, I must say yes, though perhaps I am not
competent to judge; but, from what you tell me, I think you ought not
to pity her at all. She is fulfilling her destiny. Is she not doing
the work given her to do? and what can any girl want more? You should
trust your mother, I think, Mr. Drummond; for she would not willingly
overwork her. Mothers are mothers: you need not be afraid," said Nan,
looking up in her clear honest way.

"Thank you; you have taken a weight off my mind," returned Archie,
more moved by this than he cared to own. That last speech had gone
home: he must trust his mother. In a moment scales seemed to fall from
the young man's eyes as he walked along gravely, and silently by Nan.
"Why, what manner of girls could these be?" he thought; "frolicsome as
kittens, and yet possessing the wisdom of mature womanhood?" And those
few simple words of Nan abided long with him.

What if he and Grace were making a mistake, and there was no hardship
in her case at all, but only clear duty, and a most high privilege, as
Nan hinted? What if his mother were right, and only they were wrong?

The idea was salutary, but hardly pleasant; for he had certainly aided
and abetted Grace in her discontent, and had doubtless increased her
repinings at her dull surroundings. Surely Grace's talents had been
given her for a purpose; else why was she so much cleverer than the
others,--so gifted with womanly accomplishments? And that clear head
of hers,--she had a genius for teaching, he had never denied that. Was
his mother, a sensible large-sighted woman in her way, to be secretly
condemned as a tyrant, and wanting in maternal tenderness for Grace,
because she had made use of this gifted daughter for the good of her
other children, and had refused to part with her at Archie's request?

Archie began to feel uncomfortable, for conscience was waxing warm
within him; and there had been a grieved hurt tone in his mot