yself to resume
our tete-a-tete conversation, which he had so satisfactorily
interrupted.

"Well, Frank!"--said she, as his coat tails disappeared out of the
doorway,--"will not that do for you?"

"I should just think it would!"--I replied, buoyantly;--"and I do not
know how to thank you and the vicar for all your kindness. I can't tell
what I should have done without your help!"

"Oh, never mind that, my boy,"--she answered kindly;--"we are both only
too glad to assist any one, especially you, Frank, whom the vicar calls
his `old maid's son!' All you have to do now, is, to be hopeful and
persevere! Only let me see you and Miss Min happily married in the
end--for I, you know, like to see young lovers happy:--I have such a
large amount of romance in me!" Indeed she had, I thought, when she
laughed cheerily at the idea.

"I'll work, never fear,"--I said--"but, promotion is very slow in
Government offices. It may be years before I have a decent income such
as would satisfy Mrs Clyde!"

"Don't think of that, my boy,"--she said, presently.--"Don't look too
far ahead! Let me see what my Keble says," she added, taking down the
volume of the _Christian Year_, which she constantly consulted each day,
from its regular place on her corner of the mantelpiece, where it always
stood guard over her favourite chair.--"Ah,"--she continued, turning
over the pages,--"I knew that I would find something to suit you. Just
hear what he says of the `lilies of the field'--

"`Alas! of thousand bosoms kind
That daily court you and caress,
How few the happy secret find
Of your calm loveliness!
Live for to-day! to-morrow's light
To-morrow's cares shall bring to sight,
Go, sleep like closing flowers at night,
And Heaven thy morn shall bless.'"

"Ah! But do you think I shall be successful?"--I asked, wishing to have
my own hopes corroborated.

"To be sure you will, my boy. Why, there you will have another hundred
a-year at once added to your income, besides what you make from your
literary work! In a short time you will be quite `an eligible person,'
I do declare!"--she said, laughing away my fit of the blues, in her
bright brisk way.

"And do you think Min will wait for me?"

"Certainly, Frank. You wrong her by the very question. She's not the
girl to change, or, I'm very much mistaken in her honest, noble face.
She will be constant and true, after what she has said to you, until
death!"

"Oh, thank yo