a

woman in front of Guido's "Massacre of the Innocents" at Bologna, with a dead baby at her feet and her eyes fixed on its angelic semblance in the sky above. Lydia's face had the same expression. "Their angels do always behold the face of their Father in Heaven," she whispered to herself. It was the only luxury in which she indulged, to sit in perfect stillness and think of her child,

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gone back again," as she always called it to herself. She was roused by the click of the little garden-gate, and turning, met the keen grey eyes of old Nanny Elmes fixed upon her. Nanny was leaning over the wicket, clad as usual in a long grey great-coat, the tails of which reached almost to her heels. She now put down her basket and came and sat on the low wall beside her. "I've been a watchin' o' ye ever so long, Lyddy, and ye stirred no more than the stone babby in the church. I didn't know as how ye could read," she added, looking suspiciously at the book. ""Tain't but a very little. I learnt * mysen a bit afore I married. There was a little maid o' Mrs. Goose's as were a rare un for her book, and she learnt me my letters, and fund the places i' th' Bible when parson was a readin', and so I cum for to know the words when I see'd un in their own places when they'se at home as 'twere. And it seems," she went on after a pause, "when I gets at the words, like as if I were a hearing

Why not? "Oh, learn me true understanding."-Ps. cxix. "My life and education both do learn me now."-Othello, Act i.

my Saviour talk to me; and whiles when I'm my lane seems to me as if He cum in at the door and say'd thae gracious words to me His own self."

The old woman listened intently, with her head on one side like a bird. "Well, it's wonderful for to hear ye; ye're like Mary i' th' story; but then you've your bite and sup certain, and you've time for faith and your salvation, and a' them things. I as has got my old body for to kip my own self, must just gi'e tent to my feet, and ha' eyes i' th' back of my bonnet (for the childer's finners, bless 'um, is as mischeevous and quick as magpies), or I should ha' nowt to my belly nor nowt to my back. And I dunna see, ," she continued, as her natural pride in her calling returned, "as Martha ain't as much wanted i' th' world as Mary. There wouldn't ha' been much dinner, I'll warrant, i' th' house where they were i' Bethany, an it hadn't been along o' she."

Lydia rose with a smile. "Tea'll be masked soon now, when Cassie and German comes in; belike ye'll hae a sup o' milk though afore?"

"Nay, I'll wait. More by reason here she comes, and the lad too. Why, child, yer fine colour's gone sadly. Ha' ye been bad sin' I saw ye?" she said, compassionately. "Ye munna take on a thattens for what's past and gone. I hae been so throng as I couldna come before," she added apologetically.

In fact the story of the murder had been an invaluable stock in trade to Mrs. Elmes. "It has been the vally to me," as she declared, "of more suppers and teas than I'd ever ha' know'd, me knowing the parties so well, and had a sould 'um the very buttons as was upon old Ashford's shirt the day he were murdered (them's the very same, leastways off the same card, mum. I've sould a sight on 'um.)" She therefore felt considerable gratitude to those who had been the means, even involuntarily, of procuring her such a pleasant time. She had not seen them since the funeral—when in the capacity of "our own correspondent" she had gone up to Stone Edge to collect the latest information-and she felt as if she had been guilty of neglect.

"I've been a wanting to see ye this three months," she went on, "but I couldn't get up this way afore now." Then looking critically about her, "Ye'r a deal better off down here, to my mind, nor upo' the top o' yon nob, with the winds blowing like as they'd tak' yer heads off. It took sich a sight o' time, too, going up the Lone Moor, and yer heart i' yer mouth as 'twere wi' a' the boggarts and things as mid be upo' the road. I'd ha' folk live in a comeatabler place, where their frens can git at 'um asy, wi'out such a deal o' toil."

"I can' ain't allus the same as I would,'" said German, half annoyed. "Him as canna get oat-cake mun put up wi' bread, but I loved the old house dearly I did. 'Tain't tho-place so mich, 'tis the feelin'."

"I've a baked some fresh oat-cake to-day, and it's gey sweet," interposed Lydia, as she placed what looked like layers of round flaps of tough whitey-brown leather on the table.

"If there's one thing I do love it's fresh oats," said the old woman;

"and it's a deal wholesomer for strength and delight nor any other grain. They say folk's teeth as eats it is whiter and long and broad; but it's not you as wants that, my lass," she added, as she looked at the row of pearls in Cassie's mouth. The girl smiled absently, hardly seeming to hear. "Manners is manners," Nanny went on, accepting all that was pressed upon her. "I will say that for this house; first ye picks a bit and then ye chats a bit; ye dunno wolf it down as some folk I see does."

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'P'raps they're poor creatures as is sore put to it for a livin'," said Lydia, excusingly.

"Ha' ye heerd," proceeded Mrs. Elmes, after a pause, "how Lawyer Gilbert have a took on hisself along of the murderin' of yer feyther? He says it's a sin and a shame as Joshuay werena put upo' his oath and 'xaminated. He's a been up in Yorkshire where his mother died, or he'd a sin to it hisself, he says, before; and the crowner were a deal too thick wi' Joshuay he says. There were summat about a horse atwixt 'um; but there's such a many tales allus, one doesna know which to believe. I thought mebbe the councillor had a been up here for to ax ye (he said as how he would) about a' that ballaraggin' and quarrellin' atwixt yer feyther and Joshuay."

“I hanna nowt to say," answered the lad, shortly, "nor what I telled un all at the 'quest. My feyther sent me home early o' that market-day, and I know nowt o' any quarrel nor ballaragging nor nowt."

Cassandra's tongue and lips seemed too dry to utter a word, but she looked pitifully at Lydia, who asked the question for her.

"Ha' ye heerd owt o' Joshua or Roland sin they went?"

"Not th' littlest bit o' a word," replied Nanny. "And 'tain't nateral we should. Joshuay 'll kip as close as a hunted hare an a' be true, wi' all this hanging over him."

"And what's come o' poor Roland?" said Lydia again.

They say he looked a very deal more cut up nor his feyther, hiding o' his face like, and just an he knew more o' th' murder nor were good for's soul, he were so white."

"I dunna believe a word on't," burst out German. "Roland were as good a chap as ever walked i' shoeleather. I were main fond o' him. I'd lay my life he know'd no more o' wrong nor I did,—and I'd gi'e a great deal for to see he again-that's what it is," said the lad, pushing away his chair and getting up with an angry glow in his face, which made poor Cassie's heart swell with gratitude to her brother.

'Tis just the way o' the world," she murmured to herself.

"Well, I'm not a sayin' nowt agin the poor fellow," said Mrs. Elmes, rising also and shaking the buttery crumbs from her lap. "He's a goodlivin' chap, I believe. I'm on'y a tellin' of ye what folk says, and as yerselves has the best right to know. And now, Cassie, I want ye for to help me wash my two or three cloes. To-morrow's Sabbath day and I'm to sleep at Farmer Clay's, and I wants to be tidy like. "Tis very viewly for to be clean, for all that one's things mid be mended and coarse. And it's my