ry. Already she knew she
had been impatient and unconciliatory, contemptuous to poor
ill-trained Nancy, whose home influences were very unfavourable; and
now, by her hastiness towards her cousin, whom she had been so anxious
to influence for good, she had probably disgusted her with the things
in which she most wanted to interest her.

She did not turn away, however, from the lights conscience brought to
her. Nurtured in a happy Christian home, under the watchful eye of the
loving father whose care had to a great extent supplied the want of
the mother she could scarcely remember, she could not have specified
the time when she first began to look upon Christ as her Saviour, and
to feel herself bound to live unto _Him_, and not to herself. But her
teacher's words had given her a new impulse--a more definite
realization of the strength by which the Christian life was to be
lived--

"The mind to blend with outward life,
While keeping at Thy side."

Humbled by her failure, she honestly confessed it, and asked for more
of the strength which every earnest seeker shall receive.

With a much lighter heart and clearer brow, Lucy went to rejoin
Stella, whom she found amusing herself with Harry and his rabbits,
having forgotten all about Lucy's hastiness. Lucy seated herself on
the grass beside them, joining readily in the admiration with which
Stella, no less than Harry, was caressing the soft, white, downy
creature with pink eyes, which was her brother's latest acquisition.

"I want him to call it Blanche--such a pretty name, isn't it, Lucy?"
said Stella.

"I won't," declared the perverse Harry, "because I don't like it;" and
so saying, he rushed off to join "the boys," as he called them.

"What have you got there?" asked Stella, holding out her hand for
Lucy's card, which she had brought down. "Yes, it's pretty, but Sophy
does much prettier ones; you should see some lovely ones she has
done!"

"Has she?" asked Lucy with interest,--thinking Stella's sister must
care more for the Bible than she herself did, if she painted
illuminated texts. "I was going to tell you this was what Miss Preston
was speaking to us about."

"I don't see that she could say much about that, it's so short. I
don't see what it means; Jesus is in heaven now, and we can't see
Him."

"Oh, but," exclaimed Lucy eagerly, overcoming her shy reluctance to
speak, "He is _always near_, though we can't see Him, and is ready to
help us when we