hy the
remainder should be passed under cheerful conditions. Mr and Mrs
Nisbet had pressed the girl to spend the next few months travelling in
their company, but Sylvia was resolute in her refusal.

"I should be a constant care to you, and a constant kill-joy, and that
would be a poor return for all you have done for me," she said sadly.
"It will comfort me all my life to remember that you were with dad
during those last dreadful days, and some day I should like very much to
visit you when I can be a pleasure instead of a burden. It does not
seem now as if I could ever be happy again, but I suppose it will come
in time."

"It will, if you trust in God and ask Him to help you. He sends
troubles to teach us lessons, dear, and to draw our thoughts to Him, but
never, never to make us miserable," said Mrs Nisbet softly. "You did
not feel that you had lost your father when he was far-off in India, and
he is a great deal nearer to you now in the spirit world. Never think
of him as in the grave, think of him in heaven, and it will grow dear
and home-like to you just because he is there. It would have grieved
him to the heart to see your young life clouded, so you must try to be
happy for his sake. I don't mean by that that you can be lively, or
care for the old amusements; that can only come with time; but
unhappiness comes from rebellion against God's will, and if you submit
to that and leave your life in His hands, you will find that all the
sting has gone out of your trouble."

The slow tears rose and stood in Sylvia's eyes.

"Thank you!" she said meekly. "I will try, but it's hard to be resigned
when one is young, and all one's life seems shattered. I don't know
what to do next. Every arrangement so far has been made, `till dad
comes home,' and now that hope has gone, and what am I to do? I have no
home, and no work, and nobody needs me. Aunt Margaret would take me in,
of course, but she would not like it as a permanency any more than I
should myself. She has her own way, and I have mine, and we did not
agree very well. She was very kind when she thought I was going away,
but at the bottom of her heart she was glad. She doesn't need me, you
see! I don't help her at all."

"But you could _make_ her need you! You could help her if you went back
determined to make it your work in life!"

Mrs Nisbet took the girl's hand in hers and pressed it gently, and
Sylvia looked into her face with miserable, honest