y furnished him
with a rich harvest.

Phillis had taken Miss Mewlstone in hand at once in the intervals of
business: she had inquired casually after Mrs. Cheyne's injured
ankle.

"It is going on well: she can stand now," returned Miss Mewlstone.
"The confinement has been very trying for her, poor thing, and she
looks sadly the worse for it. Don't take out those pins, my dear: what
is the good of taking so much pains with a fat old thing like me and
pricking your pretty fingers? Well, she is always asking me if I have
seen any of you when I come home."

"Mrs. Cheyne asks after us!" exclaimed Phillis, in a tone of
astonishment.

"Ah, just so. She has not forgotten you. Magdalene never forgets any
one in whom she takes interest; not that she likes many people, poor
dear! but then so few understand her. They will not believe that it is
all on the surface, and that there is a good heart underneath."

"You call her Magdalene," observed Phillis, rather curiously, looking
up into Miss Mewlstone's placid face.

"Ah, just so; I forgot. You see, I knew her as a child,--oh, such a
wee toddling mite! younger than dear little Janie. I remember her just
as though it were yesterday; the loveliest little creature,--prettier
even than Janie!"

"Was Janie the child who died?"

"Yes, the darling! She was just three years old; a perfect angel of a
child! and Bertie was a year older. Poor Magdalene! it is no wonder
she is as she is,--no husband and children! When she sent for me I
came at once, though I knew how it would be."

"You knew how it would be?" repeated Phillis, in a questioning voice,
for Miss Mewlstone had come to a full stop here. She looked a little
confused at this repetition of her words.

"Oh, just so--just so. Thank you, my dear. You have done that
beautifully, I am sure. Never mind what an old woman says. When people
are in trouble like that, they are often ill to live with. Magdalene
has her moods; so have we all, my dear, though you are too young to
know that; but no one understands her better than her old Bathsheba;
that is my name, and a funny old name too, is it not?" continued Miss
Mewlstone, blinking at Phillis with her little blue eyes. "The worst
of having such a name is that no one will use it; even father and
mother called me Barby, as Magdalene does sometimes still."

Bathsheba Mewlstone! Phillis's lip curled with suppressed amusement.
What a droll old thing she was! and yet she liked her, someho