dering the eight eager faces in the family pew, his heightened
color being the only evidence that this was the first time he had
addressed a congregation from the pulpit. It happened, strangely enough,
that a collection for the Missionary Society was to be taken up on this
occasion, and the young deacon delivered an exceedingly eloquent
discourse advocating the cause of missions, with a warmth and
earnestness that carried his hearers along with him, and showed that
his heart was in the work. No one who heard him could doubt his future
success in the cause.

Then what a happy group waited for him after service, and what approving
smiles beamed upon him from loved faces when he came!

"Oh, Everard! I should never go to sleep at sermon time if you always
preached," cried little Amy. "It was so nice," added Rose, warmly; while
the proud father wrung his son's hand in silence more eloquent than
words.

Then Everard disappointed a crowd of admiring friends by disappearing
through a side gate and going home across the fields, even waving back
his young sisters, who would have followed him. "I could not stand it,"
he said, on reaching home half an hour after the others, though his way
had been much shorter, he having spent the interim in self-communion
beneath the shade of a friendly oak. Oh! that was a happy Sunday at Elm
Grove; but, like all earthly happiness, it had one cloud--Grace's
strange and unkind conduct.

CHAPTER XXXII.

"Please, Miss Leicester, a gentleman wishes to see you," said Susan,
putting her rosy face in at the school-room door, as Isabel was giving
the children their last lesson.

"To see _me_, Susan?" exclaimed Isabel.

"Yes, Miss, he asked for you, but he would not give his name."

"Very well, Susan. Who can it be?" she asked, turning to Alice.

"I'm sure _I_ don't know," answered Alice, laughing, "you had better go
and see."

On entering the drawing-room, Isabel saw to her astonishment that it was
Louis Taschereau. "This is indeed a surprise," she said, extending her
hand, for in her present happiness she could not be ungracious or
unkind.

Encouraged by her cordial greeting, Louis began: "I thought of writing,
but determined on seeking an interview, as a letter could but
inadequately convey what I wished to say. I have suffered much, as you
are aware, and my troubles have made me a very different man; but a
gleam of light seems once more to shine on my path, and I hope yet to
repa