e to allow him to remain my friend, and to forgive his presumption; and
so we shook hands and parted. He did not join the family that evening,
and the next day I left the Merryweathers.

'I do not know how it was, but when I returned home, I thought more of
this young man than of any one else. Although my sister and myself were
surrounded by men of a very different, and I may say, superior class,
still he haunted me very much, for a time at least.

'Then came my sister's marriage, which proved, as you know, unfortunate
in a pecuniary point of view, and her and her husband's emigration to
Australia in search of fortune. Then followed our own ruin, and my
father's paralytic seizure. To help my parents and support myself, I
came to you as governess. You know, dearest Freda, how happy your dear
mother made me as long as she lived, and how ardently I desired to
fulfil her dying wish that I should finish your education. Most thankful
I am that I was permitted to do so.

'I need not tell you, over and over again, the sad story of my mother's
death, and my return home to live with my father, and become a daily
instead of a resident governess. All the happiness I have known--at
least the greatest--since our troubles, has been in this house.

'But this has nothing to do with Mr Jones. I heard, casually from my
friend, Mrs Merryweather, that he had left them and gone to college;
what college, she did not say. For some years I had quite enough of
painful duty to perform to make me forget the weeks passed in his
society, and their termination; or to think of a person of whom I had
quite lost sight. About six or seven years ago, however, I heard of him,
strange to say, through my sister. I had, of course, told her of his
proposal and my refusal.

'She and her husband were among the early settlers at Melbourne, and in
the course of time became tolerably prosperous. He, you know, was
obliged to leave his regiment for drunkenness, and contrary to the usual
course of things, became steadier, though not steady, in Australia. My
sister lost two children in one week from fever, and during her great
sorrow, was constantly visited by the clergyman of her parish, who
turned out to be my early friend, Mr Jones. I do not think he knew she
was my sister for some time; but she described his untiring kindness and
gentleness as her greatest comfort during her troubles. He was also of
great benefit to her husband, by taking advantage of the oppor