g to
understand and a graver thing to know.

A SORROWFUL GUEST.

Dear Helen,--What do you say to our going to housekeeping together?
I'm a very old bachelor, with many whims; but I'm your brother, and I
don't know that there was ever an act of Parliament that we should
spend our lives on opposite shores of the Atlantic. The Athertons'
lease of our house is out next month, and I have a fancy for taking it
myself. We will call it merely an experiment, if you like; but I'm
tired of the way I live now. I'm growing gray, and I shall be
dreadfully glad to see you. We will make a real home of it, and see
something of each other; you must not ask for any more pathos than
this. Pick up whatever you can to make the house look fine, but don't
feel in the least obliged to come, or put it off until the spring. Do
just as you like. I hear the Duncans are coming home in October;
perhaps you could take passage on the same steamer. I can't believe it
is three years since I went over last. Do you think we shall know each
other? _"L'absence diminue les petits amours et augmente les grandes,
comme le vent qui eteint les bougies et rallume la feu."_ I met that
sentiment in a story I was reading to-day, and I thought it would seem
very gallant and alluring if I put it into my letter. I think you will
not be homesick here: you will find more friends than seems possible
at first thought. I'm in a hurry to-day; but I'm none the less

Your very affectionate brother,

JOHN AINSLIE.

Boston, Aug. 2, 1877.

This was a letter which came to me one morning a year or two ago from
my only brother. We had been separated most of the time since our
childhood; for my father and mother both died then, and our home was
broken up, as Jack was to be away at school and college. During the
war he was fired with a love of his country and a longing for military
glory, and entered the army with many of his fellow-students at
Harvard. I was at school for a time, but afterwards went to live with
an aunt, whose winter home was in Florence; and when Jack left the
army he came to Europe to go on with his professional studies. He was
most of the time in Dublin and London and Paris at the medical
schools; but we were together a good deal, and he went off for several
long journeys with my aunt and me before he went back to America. I
always hoped that we might some day live together: but my aunt wished
me never to leave her; for she was somewhat of an inv