he had met at the Christmas party.

With these, he had more than one discussion, in his sick room, on
the subject of dancing, and the old minister found these gay young
girls rather more than a match for him. During a discussion of this
kind, Grace left the room. In her absence, one of her companions
said to him--

"Grace is a good girl."

A quick light went over the old man's countenance; and he replied,
with evident feeling--

"Good? Yes; I look at her, sometimes, and think her almost an
angel."

"She dances."

The old man sighed.

"She is a Christian."

"I wish there were more such in the world," said he, unhesitatingly.

"And yet she dances."

"My dear child," said Mr. Archer, turning with an affectionate smile
towards his young interlocutor, "don't take such an advantage of me
in the argument."

"Then it is settled," was continued, in triumph, "that if dancing is
not a Christian grace, a maiden may dance and yet be a Christian?"

"God bless you, and keep you from all the evil of the world," said
the old man, fervently, as he took the young girl's hand and pressed
it between his own. "It may be all right! it may be all right!"

Grace came back at the moment, and he ceased speaking.

From that time the venerable minister said no more on the subject,
and it is but fair to believe that when he returned home he had very
serious doubts in regard to the sin of dancing, which had once been
as fairly held as if it had been an article in the Confession of
Faith.

IS SHE A LADY?

"MRS. TUDOR is a perfect lady," said my wife, Mrs. Sunderland, to me
one day, after having received a visit from the individual she
named.

"She may have the manners of a lady," I replied, "when abroad; but
whether she be a lady at home or not, is more than I can tell. It is
easy to put on the exterior of a lady; but to be a lady is a very
different thing."

"All that is true enough; but why do you connect such remarks with
the name of Mrs. Tudor? Do you know any thing to the contrary of her
being a lady?--a lady at home, as you say, for instance?"

"No, I can't say that I do; but, somehow or other, I am a little
inclined to be doubtful of the genuineness of Mrs. Tudor's claims to
being a lady. Once or twice I have thought that I perceived an air
of superciliousness to persons who were considered inferior. This is
a rigid but true test of any one's claims to being either a lady or
a gentleman. No true lady is less