ALL FOR THE BEST: A Story of Quiet Life. "So, He bringeth them to the haven where they would be." IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. III. LONDON: 250.b. 72. HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1861. The right of Translation is reserved. ALL FOR THE BEST. CHAPTER I. Braeton, June 29th.-Oh! how I wish these summer days were over! These long, warm, motionless, sunshiny summer days, they weary me so! In winter time, when people draw together by the fire and talk about things in a cheery sociable way, for the mere sake of keeping themselves warm, the time gets over more quickly; but sixteen long hours of light and sunshine— oh! how dreary they are! Shame on me that I should complain of June beauty, but so it is. I believe every one feels it so- -at least, I mean, every one who is not thoroughly at rest. There is such an indescribable lassitude and monotony in this constant presence of nature, seeing her go droning on with her work, plodding unceasingly over those vast, mysterious processes of growth and renovation, which make ours so puny, so feeble. One does not feel this so much in winter. I wonder if there are any people who never feel it at all, people who do not know what it is to look back on a memory such as mine, and forward to a future so blank sometimes, and dreary. But all suffering has its lull; all sorrow belonging to this life is hushed sooner or later. Mine is. I feel sometimes as if rest were very near at hand, and if not, I am learning now to bear all there is for me to bear in a strength greater than my own; and even the very thought of that other strength is in itself a sort of rest. Perhaps it is in this way that God is bringing me to the haven where I would be. Once safely anchored there, I shall not think the past has been too bitter. Last night, whilst Stephen Roden and Maud were sitting in the garden together, I went down to Marbrook to see Miss Nunly. She had got an old cabinet spread open before her, which usually |