d little worthy of your sympathies in
the ordinary world. The ordinary world--every-day honest folks--are
better than you think them, much better than any bookish, romancing chit
of a girl can be who hardly ever puts her nose over her uncle the
parson's garden wall."

"Consequently of whom you know nothing. Excuse me--indeed, it does not
matter whether you excuse me or not--you have attacked me without
provocation; I shall defend myself without apology. Of my relations with
my two cousins you are ignorant. In a fit of ill-humour you have
attempted to poison them by gratuitous insinuations, which are far more
crafty and false than anything with which you can justly charge me. That
I happen to be pale, and sometimes to look diffident, is no business of
yours; that I am fond of books, and indisposed for common gossip, is
still less your business; that I am a 'romancing chit of a girl' is a
mere conjecture on your part. I never romanced to you nor to anybody you
know. That I am the parson's niece is not a crime, though you may be
narrow-minded enough to think it so. You dislike me. You have no just
reason for disliking me; therefore keep the expression of your aversion
to yourself. If at any time in future you evince it annoyingly, I shall
answer even less scrupulously than I have done now."

She ceased, and sat in white and still excitement. She had spoken in the
clearest of tones, neither fast nor loud; but her silver accents
thrilled the ear. The speed of the current in her veins was just then as
swift as it was viewless.

Mrs. Yorke was not irritated at the reproof, worded with a severity so
simple, dictated by a pride so quiet. Turning coolly to Miss Moore, she
said, nodding her cap approvingly, "She has spirit in her, after
all.--Always speak as honestly as you have done just now," she
continued, "and you'll do."

"I repel a recommendation so offensive," was the answer, delivered in
the same pure key, with the same clear look. "I reject counsel poisoned
by insinuation. It is my right to speak as I think proper; nothing binds
me to converse as you dictate. So far from always speaking as I have
done just now, I shall never address any one in a tone so stern or in
language so harsh, unless in answer to unprovoked insult."

"Mother, you have found your match," pronounced little Jessie, whom the
scene appeared greatly to edify. Rose had heard the whole with an
unmoved face. She now said, "No; Miss Helstone is not my m