the noise of London ; every thing was so green, so
soft, so still. The nightingales sang to him all |
night, and the breeze swung the early-blooming
sprays of the sweet Banksia roses backwards and |
forwards outside his window. In the morning
he was awakened by the church-bells—Lyke church
had a peal of five—and went down into the garden
to find Nest standing in a blaze of brilliant early
sunshine with a bunch of lilies of the valley in her
hand, two or three of which she detached and pre-
sented to him as her morning greeting. She wore
a white dress and green ribbons, and looked not
unlike a lily herself, as Edward did not fail to tell
her. He felt somewhat as if he was acting a part
in an idyll, and threw himself into it with consider-
able earnestness and some amusement ; but perhaps
he overdid it a little, for a pair of keen eyes were
taking note of his doings in a way that he little
suspected.

“ Aunt Hermy,” said Winny, when they were
alone in the dining-room, after breakfast. ‘‘I don’t
like him! He is not half good enough for Nest.
He has not got a true ring about him.”

“Jt is very early days to judge, Winny dear.”

“JT can’t help it. I know second thoughts are
best, and all that; but I can see as plainly as
possible that he is weak and vain, and not nearly
so much in love as he ought to be.”

“How, my dear child?” said Aunt Hermy,
anxiously.

“Did not you see him last night when he was
reading the Saturday, and never noticed Nest
getting up to get out the chess-table ? and did not
you see how he got out his ambler the first thing,
and began to talk about it, as if we cared about
that? And then he makes pretty speeches and
pays little compliments, such as a man might say
to any girl he was flirting with—not such as he
ought to keep for his promised wife. I can’t be-
lieve that Nest is going to marry him !”

“Tt seems like it,” said Aunt Hermy, with a sigh.

“ Nest always was as blind as a bat!” went on
Winny. “I wish people would inv nt mental
spectacles. She is short-sighted in her mind, and
people who are nothing particular in any way seem
to her to haye every virtue under the sun.”

“Well, Winny, I am not at all sure that your
spectacles are not too strong for you to see through
clearly. Don’t judge on such a very short acquaint-
ance, for nobedy is more liable to prejudice than
sisters and brothers-in-law, and if you don’t take
eare you will be sorry some day when you find you

THE PANELLED HOUSE.

| her was a cross one.

have estranged yourself from him.”

“JT won't estrange myself. I can be as double-
faced as any body,” said Winny. “I mean to be |
a systematic hypocrite, and pretend I like him.
Only I must have it out with somebody.”

And Winny walked away, in a mood which for |

141

Poor child, she was going

through one of those periods of ‘‘ upset” and |
“muddle,” which are almost more pai nful to young |

minds than real trials and temptation. When all
the comfortable foundations of life seem to be
rudely shaken, and an underlying jar and fret
prevents any true enjoyment of the little pleasures

of the day, and sifting its causes only shows that

nobody is in fault, and that you yourself are frac-
tious and irritable ; and when the moral nature is
not sufficiently developed to perceive that the true
perplexity, and the true solution—that the changes
and chances of this mortal life are only shifting waves
on the surface, and that they do not prevent the
anchor of the soul from holding firm upon the
stable foundation below; it is little wonder that a
girl like Winny should creep away into solitude,
and throw herself on the ivied ground in the
shrubbery, and ery as if her heart was breaking.
Very foolish, no doubt; but every one is not per-
fectly wise or good at nineteen, or where would be
the use of threescore years and ten ?

Before long it was church time, and they walked
to church in a body. ‘ There’s Miss Nest’s young
man,” said the village gossips, as they watched the
procession, Winny and the two aunts in front, Nest
and Edward behind. Winny, as her way was,
laughed and chattered all the more for her depressed
spirits ; her red eyes did not show behind the dainty
little spotted veil she had tied over her bonnet, and
the old women said, as they watched her, ‘“ Bless
her little heart, she’s never had a thought of care,
has Miss Winny. Somebody ‘ll be coming after
she soon, too.”

Edward behaved decorously during the service ;
but his attention was considerably distracted by
the singing of a young lady near him. He thought
he had never heard such a magnificent voice—so
rich, so full and free, as it flowed out in waves of
sound all over that part of the chureh. “ Bad
form to do it in that marked way,” he said to him-
self; “but I suppose she can't help it. Whata
voice it is, to be sure |”

Before long he managed to catch sight of the
singer, and perceived that she was a very hand-
some girl. “I must make Nest introduce me,”
thought he,—“ good little Nest! how I should
shock her if she knew how I was attending to my
neighbours instead of my devotions. But really
such young ladies with such voices should not
come upon one unawares.”

Edward’s wish was gratified without his having
to use any means towards its fulfilment. His party
stayed in church until most of the congregation
had dispersed, and then, when they came into the
churchyard, found themselves waylaid by a tall
officer, and a well-dressed young lady, in whom
Edward recognized the siren of the church.