disaster
in commercial life; and so many others, through disease or advanced age,
or the still more cruel stroke of death, find themselves stranded,
lonely, and deserted, and languishing for a fireside friend. What
comfortable, beneficial unions might be brought about in such cases, one
should think; and yet why did they never or seldom turn out well?

"Faults there must be. Where did they lie?--On both sides," answered her
understanding. "Not surely alone upon the side of the new comer--the
paid one, consequently the obliged one, consequently the only one of the
parties who had duties that she was pledged to perform, and which, it is
true, she too often very imperfectly performed--but also upon the other.
She, it is true, is pledged to nothing but the providing meat, lodging,
and salary; but that will not dispense her from obligations as a
Christian, and as a member of the universal sisterhood, which are not
quite so easily discharged.

"It must double the difficulty to the new comer," thought Mrs. Melwyn,
"the being treated so carelessly as she too often is. How hard it must
be to perform duties such as hers, if they are not performed in love!
and how impossible it must be to love in such a case--unless we meet
with love. Even to be treated with consideration and kindness will not
suffice upon the one side, nor the most scrupulous endeavor to
discharge duty upon the other--people must try to _love_.

"How soothing to a poor, deserted orphan to be taken to the heart! How
sweet to forlorn old age to find a fresh object of affection! Ah, but
then these sort of people seem often so disagreeable, do one's best, one
can not love or like them! But why do they seem so disagreeable? Partly
because people will overlook nothing--have no mutual indulgence in
relations which require so much. If one's child has little ways one does
not quite like, who thinks of hating her for it? If one's mother is a
little provoking and tedious under the oppressive weight of years or
sickness, who thinks of making a great hardship of it? But if the poor,
humble friend is only a little awkward or ungainly, she is odious; and
if the poor, deserted mother, or widow, wife, or aged suffering creature
is a little irritable or tedious, she is _such_ a tyrant!

"Oh how I wish!...

"Well, Catherine is a sensible, well-judging creature, and she assures
me this Miss Arnold is a remarkably sweet-tempered, affectionate,
modest, judicious girl. Why should