ut her. A young governess came every day
for two hours to teach the three eldest ones, but their life was
essentially a nursery one. And when the House was closed, and the
husband and wife would go off to the Continent or to the Highlands, the
children would be sent to a quiet seaside town with their nurse and the
nursery maid.

The following afternoon a little figure stole quietly down to the
library door. Betty knew her father was out, and Mr. Roper never
repulsed any of the children. After a timid knock she passed in, and
made a little picture as she stood in the firelight, in her brown
velveteen frock and large white-frilled pinafore.

'Well,' said Mr. Roper, wheeling round from his writing-desk, 'what do
you want, Betty?'

'I want one of father's books,' the child said earnestly, 'one that
Dick Somebody wrote--a book that tells the meaning of everything.'

'I wish there was such a one in existence,' said the young man, smiling
a little sadly. 'Now what is in your little head, I wonder?'

'It's a word I want to find, please.'

'Oh, a word! Bless the child, she means a dictionary!' and Mr. Roper
laughed as he drew a fat volume out of a shelf, and placed it on a
table by the little girl.

'May I help you to find it?'

'It's tribulation. I don't know how it's spelt.'

He did not ask questions; that was one thing that attracted Betty
towards him. She was a curious mixture of frankness and reserve. She
would confide freely of her own free will, but if pressed by questions
would relapse at once into silence. He found the word for her, and she
read with difficulty, 'Trouble, distress, great affliction.'

'Do they all mean tribulation?' she asked.

'Tribulation means all of them,' was the answer.

'And can children have tribulation, Mr. Roper?'

'What do you think?'

'I must have it if I'm to get to heaven,' she said emphatically; and
then she left him, and the young man repeated her words to himself with
a sigh and a smile, as he replaced the book in its resting-place.

CHAPTER II

'Mother Nature'

A few evenings after this, as nurse was undressing the little girls for
bed, Mrs. Stuart came into the nursery. She was going out to dinner,
and looked very beautiful in her soft satin dress and pearls. She was
tall and stately, with the same golden hair as Molly, but her face was
somewhat cold in expression.

Sitting down in an easy chair by the fire she asked,--

'What is the matter w