a burden to them."

"Well, my dear, then your own interest is all that remains to be
considered. There are few blessings in life that can compensate for the
loss of self-reliance. She who derives her support from persons upon
whom she has no natural claim, finds the effect upon herself to
be decidedly narrowing. Perpetually in debt, without the means of
reimbursement, barred from any generous action which does not seem like
'robbing Peter to pay Paul,' she sinks too often into the character of
a sponge, whose only business is absorption. But I see you do not like
what I am saying, and I will tell you something which I am sure you
_will_ like--my own veritable history.

"I was left an orphan in childhood, like yourself, and when my father's
affairs were settled, not a dollar remained for my support. I was only
six years of age, but I had attracted the notice of a distant relative,
who was a man of considerable wealth. Without any effort of my own, I
became an inmate of his family, and his only son, a few years my elder,
was taught to consider me as a sister.

"George Somers was a generous, kind-hearted boy, and I believe he was
none the less fond of me, because I was likely to rob him of half his
fortune. Mr. Somers often spoke of making a will, in which I was to
share equally with his son in the division of his property, but a
natural reluctance to so grave a task led him to defer it from one year
to another. Meantime, I was sent to expensive schools, and was as idle
and superficial as any heiress in the land.

"I was just sixteen when my kind benefactor suddenly perished on board
the ill-fated Lexington, and, as he died without a will, I had no legal
claim to any farther favours. But George Somers was known as a very
open-handed youth, upright and honourable, and, as he was perfectly well
acquainted with the wishes of his father, I felt no fears with regard to
my pecuniary condition. While yet overwhelmed with grief at the loss of
one whom my heart called father, I received a very kind and sympathizing
letter from George, in which he said he thought I had better remain at
school for another year, as had been originally intended.

"'Of course,' he added, 'the death of my father does not alter our
relation in the least; you are still my dear and only sister.'

"And, in compliance with his wishes, I passed another year at a very
fashionable school--a year of girlish frivolity, in which my last chance
of acquiring