g the little humming-bird, before the net has been properly
twined round her bright little heart. As far as I can see, he is much
smitten, but very cautious in his approaches, and he is wise."

Margaret did not know what dismay she conveyed, as she handed this
letter to her sister. There was no rest for Ethel till she could be
alone with her father. "Could nothing prevent it? Could not Flora be
told of Mr. Rivers's wishes?" she asked.

"His wishes would have lain this way."

"I do not know that."

"It is no concern of ours. There is nothing objectionable here, and
though I can't say it is not a disappointment, it ought not to be. The
long and short of it is, that I never ought to have told you anything
about it."

"Poor Norman!"

"Absurd! The lad is hardly one-and-twenty. Very few marry a first
love." (Ah, Ethel!) "Poor old Rivers only mentioned it as a refuge from
fortune-hunters, and it stands to reason that he would have preferred
this. Anyway, it is awkward for a man with empty pockets to marry an
heiress, and it is wholesomer for him to work for his living. Better
that it should be out of his head at once, if it were there at all. I
trust it was all our fancy. I would not have him grieved now for worlds,
when his heart is sore."

"Somehow," said Ethel, "though he is depressed and silent, I like it
better than I did last Christmas."

"Of course, when we were laughing out of the bitterness of our hearts,"
said Dr. May, sighing. "It is a luxury to let oneself alone to be
sorrowful."

Ethel did not know whether she desired a tete-a-tete with Norman or not.
She was aware that he had seen Flora's letter, and she did not believe
that he would ever mention the hopes that must have been dashed by it;
or, if he should do so, how could she ever guard her father's secret? At
least, she had the comfort of recognising the accustomed Norman in his
manner, low-spirited, indeed, and more than ever dreamy and melancholy,
but not in the unnatural and excited state that had made her unhappy
about him. She could not help telling Dr. Spencer that this was much
more the real brother.

"I dare say," was the answer, not quite satisfactory in tone.

"I thought you would like it better."

"Truth is better than fiction, certainly. But I am afraid he has a
tendency to morbid self-contemplation, and you ought to shake him out of
it."

"What is the difference between self-contemplation and
self-examination?"

"The difference