urth Commandment.

Miss Ponsonby was one of the many good women given to hard judgments on
slight grounds, and to sudden reactions still more violent; and the
sight of Lord Fitzjocelyn spending a quiet, respectable Sunday, had
such an effect on her, that she transgressed her own mandate, and
broached 'the distressing subject.'

'Mary, my dear, I suppose this young gentleman is an improved
character?'

'He is always improving,' said Mary.

'I mean, that an important change must have taken place since I
understood you to say you had refused him. I thought you acted most
properly then; and, as I see him now, I think you equally right in
accepting him.'

'He was very much what he is now,' said Mary.

'Then it was from no doubt of his being a serious character?'

'None whatever,' said Mary, emphatically.

'Well, my dear, I must confess his appearance, his family, and your
refusal, misled me. I fear I did him great injustice.'

A silence, and then Miss Ponsonby said, 'After all, my dear, though I
thought quite otherwise at first, I do believe that, considering what
the youth is, and how much attached he seems, you might safely continue
the engagement.'

Mary's heart glowed to her aunt for having been thus conquered by
Louis--she who, three nights back, had been so severely incredulous, so
deeply disappointed in her niece for having been deluded into endurance
of him. But her resolution was fixed. 'It would not be right,' she
said; 'his father would not allow it. There is so little chance of
papa's relenting, or of my coming home, that it would be wrong to keep
him in suspense. He had better turn his thoughts elsewhere while he is
young enough to begin again.'

'It might save him from marrying some mere fine lady.'

'That will never be, whatever woman he chooses will--' She could not go
on, but presently cleared her voice--'No; I should like to leave him
quite free. I was less his choice than his father's; and, though I
thought we should have been very happy, it does not seem to be the
leading of Heaven. I am so far his inferior in cleverness, and
everything attractive, and have been made so like his elder sister,
that it might not have been best for him. I want him to feel that, in
beginning afresh, he is doing me no injury; and then in time, whenever
I come home, it may be such a friendship as there was between our
elders. That is what I try to look forward to,--no, I don't think I
look forward to a