"FRANCES KANE."

This letter was quickly written, as speedily directed and stamped, and,
wrapping her red shawl over her head, Frances herself went out in the
silent night, walked half a mile to the nearest pillar-box, kissed the
letter passionately before she dropped it through the slit, and then
returned home, with the stars shining over her, and a wonderful new
peace in her heart. Her father's unsympathetic words were forgotten, and
she lived over and over again on what her hungry heart had craved for
all these years.

The next morning she was up early; for the post of housekeeper,
head-gardener, general accountant, factotum, amanuensis, reader, etc.,
to John Kane, Esq., of the Firs, was not a particularly light post, and
required undivided attention, strong brains, and willing feet, from
early morning to late night every day of the week. Frances was by no
means a grumbling woman, and if she did not go through her allotted
tasks with the greatest possible cheerfulness and spirit, she performed
them ungrudgingly, and in a sensible, matter-of-fact style.

On this particular morning, however, the joy of last night was still in
her face; as she followed Watkins about, her merry laugh rang in the
air; work was done in half the usual time, and never done better, and
after breakfast she was at leisure to sit with her father and read to
him as long as he desired it.

"Well, Frances," he said, in conclusion, after the reader's quiet voice
had gone on for over an hour and a half, "you have settled that little
affair of last night, I presume, satisfactorily. I have thought the
whole matter over carefully, my love, and I have really come to the
conclusion that I can not spare you. You see you are, so to speak,
necessary to me, dear. I thought I would mention this to you now,
because in case you have not yet written to that young Arnold, it will
simplify matters for you. I should recommend you not to enter on the
question of your own feelings at all, but state the fact simply--'My
father can not spare me.'"

"I wrote to Philip last night," said Frances. "I have neither refused
him nor accepted him. I have asked him on a visit here; can we put him
up at the Firs?"

"Certainly, my love; that is a good plan. It will amuse me to have a man
about the house again, and travelers are generally entertaining. I can
also intimate to him, perhaps with more propriety than you can, how