f all, for then Noel invariably
came--sometimes to look in and say a bright and cheery word, on his way
to keep an engagement, sometimes to give them the benefit of the bright
stories and good things he had heard at a dinner, and sometimes to spend
a whole long evening, talking, laughing and reading aloud from new
magazines and books which he brought with him in abundance. These were
the sorts of delights utterly unknown to Christine before. She had read
very little, and the world of delight that reading opened up to her was
new, inspiring and enchanting. Noel read aloud his favorite poets, their
two young hearts throbbing together, and their eyes alight with feeling
at the passages which left the matured heart of Mrs. Murray undisturbed.

It had been in vain that Mrs. Murray had tried to induce Christine
to sing. It occurred to her at last to put it in the light of a favor
to herself, and when she told Christine that she loved music very
dearly, and rarely had an opportunity to hear it, the girl went at once
and played and sang for her, and then Mrs. Murray used the same
argument--that of giving a friend pleasure--with regard to Noel. At
first it was difficult and awkward, but before very long Christine and
Noel were singing duets together, and music now became a delightful part
of their evening's entertainment. How dull the evenings were when Noel
did not come!--for sometimes there were engagements from which he could
not escape. Mrs. Murray missed him much herself and it pleased her to
be sure that Christine did also. Sometimes he would come late after a
dinner, and if it were only a brief half-hour that he spent with them
it made the evening seem a success, instead of a failure.

After a little while Mrs. Murray succeeded in inducing Christine to
take walks with her along those quiet unfashionable streets, in the
bracing air of the late autumn afternoons. She would return from these
expeditions so refreshed, with such a charming color in the fair, sweet
face to which peace and love and protecting companionship had given an
expression of new beauty, that Mrs. Murray would be half protesting at
the thought that the people that passed it, in the street, were deprived
of a sight of its loveliness by that close, thick veil, which it never
seemed to occur to Christine to lay aside. It seemed an instinct with
her, and her good friend felt hurt to the very heart when she thought
what the instinct had its foundation in.

I