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Mr. Frank Hilton, he said, "Mr. Frank shall take the key, Bessy, to aunt Katherine, and you shall wait a little while for me. Tell aunt Katharine that Bessy and I will follow, if you please, but that we are going first of all into the town, to buy a book at Mr. Russel's for Bessy, so that she need not leave the garden-gate open for us. What was the book I promised you, Bessy? nay, I think there were two, tell me the names of them."-Bessy had not forgotten the names, though she had never seen the two books. One," she said; "is Henry and his Bearer,' the other is called 'The Two Lambs.' Bessy told her mother on her return, that they did not overtake her aunt Katherine and Mr. Frank Hilton, till they had reached the very end of the downs, and that her aunt looked very grave and very red, and that Mr. Hilton smiled, and so did her grandfather; and that her grandfather allowed her to sit down "for ever such a time upon one of the little green hillocks, and read The Two Lambs,' while he walked up and down under the fir-trees with her aunt and Mr. Hilton; and that afterwards, her grandfather pointed out to her the chimneys of an old farm-house under Chinthurst Hill, and told her that perhaps aunt Katherine would come back from the north, and live there; and that when she had asked who lived there now, aunt Katherine had laughed, and that her grandfather had told her that the farm-house was Mr. Frank Hilton's home.

16

CHAPTER II.

EVENTS AND CHANGES.

"My dear nephew," said Miss Grant; "thou must learn to take people as they are. It is well to do them all the good in thy power, and never to lose an opportunity of doing them a good turn; but we must frequently ask ourselves, Who made thee or me a judge over others? Thou hast expected too much in Randal Thornclif. Is it his fault that thou art disappointed ?"-" My sister is quite right," said Mr. Grant, laying down his book; " and I would add,' Learn to look upon sin in thy neighbour, in somewhat the same light as thou wouldst regard a very dangerous disorder of the body.' Thou wouldst not be angry with me, Walter, for being very ill, wouldst thou? thou wouldst be sorry, and wish me well cured; but anger would be unreasonable."" But, uncle," said Walter, smiling; "who is always reasonable? And then, I did not expect to find him mean and deceitful; I should not

have been so hurt, if he had behaved badly in an open straight-forward sort of manner. You know how he abuses the Hiltons behind their backs. Shall I tell you what he said of Frank Hilton, whom he pretends to feel such a friendship for ?" “Indeed I do not wish to hear, Walter; nor am I more anxious to know how he has disappointed thee. Thou wilt be the wiser for what has happened, and not be in such haste to make an intimate friend of a person, of whom thou didst know so little.". "You would have me then suspicious. I thought, uncle, you hated suspicions."

"So I do, Walter, but there is surely some difference between unwarranted rashness, and uncharitable suspicion. But I tell thee what, Rachel," he said, turning to his sister; "thou hast let me forget time over this volume. I promised to go at three o'clock to the rose-garden, and the afternoon is so pleasant, that suppose we all walk to the cottage: come, thou canst take thy needle-work, and sit down under the chesnut-trees, and Walter shall help me with the stills and the rose-leaves.' -"We might take our tea there," replied Rachel; "and to say the truth, I had rather put by my needle-work, and help the girls to gather roses. "And so earn a bottle of rose-water for thyself, Rachel ?" -Thou wast not here last summer, Walter, in time to see the roses in bloom," said his aunt Rachel, as she and her nephew stood at the entrance of the garden, which was thick set with

C

roses; "thou didst not come to Arlingford till the end of the seventh month, if I remember.". ." I did not," replied Walter; "but what a beautiful sight it is; here is at least an acre of ground spread over with roses in full bloom."

"Thou art thinking, perhaps," said Mr. Grant, who had left them to enter the cottage, and who now returned and stood beside them "thou art thinking, perhaps, Walter, when comparing the sober raiment of thine aunt Rachel, and myself, with our field of bright and blushing roses, that nature is not clad in Quakers' colours, and thou art rejoicing that roses are not drab-coloured. "It was not so," replied

Is it

not so, Walter ?". Walter ; "that is, I was not thinking about any thing of the sort; but now you have put it into my head, uncle, I will not deny that I am glad that roses, and I may add, green trees, and blue skies, as well as roses, are not drab-coloured.". "Come this way," said Rachel, mildly; " and I think I can prove to thee that there is a wiser and more enlightened way of treating the subject than thine. Look upon this border of lavender: it gives forth a fragrance which can almost rival the sweet breath of the rose, but it wears a livery quite as sober as a Quaker's garments; nay, I think it is an exact match with my own gown;" and as she said so, she gathered several sticks of lavender, and placed them in the waistband of her gown, or rather among the transparent folds of snow-white muslin,

which were pinned down as low as her waist :

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nay, come further, come to my little green-house, Walter, and I will show thee a flower which is positively of the dullest, dingiest drab. In a few hours before we leave this garden, that little plain-faced flower will fill this green-house with its rich and spicy odour. Instead therefore of rejoicing that roses are not drab-coloured, I would rejoice that the God of nature has made not only the beautiful rose, but the lavender, and the night-scented stock. He may be as pleased with their sober vesture, as with the glowing beauty of the rose, for they have all their appropriate place and use.""It is Bacon," said Mr. Grant, whose eyes had been all the while fixed upon the rose-beds; "that has remarked, that the only rose which giveth forth its perfume to the air, is the musk-rose, and his words are true there is but a faint, and scarcely perceptible fragrance from the hundreds of roses blossoming here."

The little party remained in the garden till after sun-set, and before they departed, Miss Grant took her nephew again to the green-house, where they found her prediction had come true, and the little dingy flower was breathing forth odours rich and spicy enough for some tropical garden.

"How pleasant the evening is," said Mr. Grant, as they walked homeward; "what a grateful coolness by the river-side! these are cheap pleasures! the flush of crimson on the clear calm sky, the