nt, and other radical preaching of that nature; and he was
a very honest man, and hated humbug in every shape. Nothing seemed
meaner to him than to profess a sham. But it began in a cloudy way to
appear to him that there is a manner of arranging one's houses that
makes it difficult--yes, well-nigh impossible--to act out in them any
of the brotherhood principles of those discourses.

There are houses where the self-respecting poor, or the honest
laboring man and woman, cannot be made to enter or to feel at home.
They are made for the selfish luxury of the privileged few. Then John
reflected, uneasily, that this change in his house had absorbed that
whole balance which usually remained on his accounts to be devoted to
benevolent purposes, and with which this year he had proposed to erect
a reading-room for his work-people.

"Lillie," said John, as he walked uneasily up and down, "I wish you
would try to help me in this thing. I always have done it,--my father
and mother did it before me,--and I don't want all of a sudden to
depart from it. It may seem a little thing, but it does a great deal
of good. It produces kind feeling; it refines and educates and softens
them."

"Oh, well, John! if you say so, I must, I suppose," said Lillie, with
a sigh. "I can have the carpets and furniture all covered, I suppose;
it'll be no end of trouble, but I'll try. But I must say, I think all
this kind of petting of the working-classes does no sort of good; it
only makes them uppish and exacting: you never get any gratitude for
it."

"But you know, dearie, what is said about doing good, 'hoping for
nothing again,'" said John.

"Now, John, please don't preach, of all things. Haven't I told
you that I'll try my best? I am going to,--I'll work with all my
strength,--you know that isn't much,--but I shall exert myself to the
utmost if you say so."

"My dear, I don't want you to injure yourself!"

"Oh! I don't mind," said Lillie, with the air of a martyr. "The
servants, I suppose, will make a fuss about it; and I shouldn't wonder
if it was the means of sending them every one off in a body, and
leaving me without any help in the house, just as the Follingsbees and
the Simpkinses are coming to visit us."

"I didn't know that you had invited the Follingsbees and Simpkinses,"
said John.

"Didn't I tell you? I meant to," said Mrs. Lillie, innocently.

"I don't like those Follingsbees, Lillie. He is a man I have no
respect for; he is on