Mamma, I want more thread," she said: "where can I get
it?"

"Up stairs, dear, in my work-box."

She then bowed slightly to Woodward and went up to find her thread, but
in fact from a wish to put an end to a conversation that she felt to be
exceedingly disagreeable. At this moment old Goodwin came in.

"You will excuse me, I trust, Mr. Woodward," said he, "I was down in the
dining-room receiving rents for------." He paused, for, on reflection,
he felt that this was a disagreeable topic to allude to; the fact
being that he acted as his daughter's agent, and I had been on that and
the preceding day receiving her rents. "Martha," said he, "what! about
luncheon? You'll take luncheon with us, Mr. Woodward?"

Woodward bowed, and Mrs. Goodwin was about to leave the room, when he
said:

"Perhaps, Mrs. Goodwin, you'd be good enough to remain for a few
minutes." Mrs. Goodwin sat down, and he proceeded: "I trust that my
arrival home will, under Providence, be the means of reconciling and
reuniting two families who never should have been at variance. Not
but that I admit, my dear friends,--if you will allow me to call
you so,--that the melancholy event of my poor uncle's death, and the
unexpected disposition of so large a property, were calculated to try
the patience of worldly-minded people--and who is not so in a more or
less I degree?"

"I don't think any of your family is," replied Goodwin, bluntly, "with
one exception."

"O! yes, my mother," replied Woodward, "and I grant it; at least she was
so, and acted upon worldly principles; but I think you will admit, at
least as Christians you must, that the hour of change and regret may
come to every human heart when its errors, and its selfishness, if you
will, have been clearly and mildly pointed out. I do not attribute the
change that has happily taken place in my dear mother to myself, but to
a higher power; although I must admit, as I do with all humility, that
I wrought earnestly, in season and out of season, since my return, to
bring it about; and, thank heaven, I have succeeded. I come this day
as a messenger of peace, to state that she is willing that the families
should be reconciled, and a happier and more lasting union effected
between them."

"I am delighted to hear it, Mr. Woodward," said Goodwin, much moved;
"God knows I am. Blessed be the peace-maker, and you are he; an easy
conscience and a light heart must be your reward."

"They must," added his wife, wi