AUTHOR OF "THE HEIR OF REDCLYFFE," "HEARTSEASE,” 'To the highest room, Earth's lowliest flowers our Lord receives: Close to His heart a place He gives, Where they shall ever bloom.' IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 1869. 'THAT is better!' said Margaret, contemplating a butterfly of the penwiper class, whose constitution her dextrous needle had been rendering less ricketty than Blanche had left it. Margaret still lay on the sofa, and her complexion had assumed the dead white of habitual ill-health. There was more languor of manner, and her countenance, when at rest, and not under the eye of her father, had a sadness of expression, as if any hopes, that she might once have entertained, were fading away. The years of Alan Ernescliffe's absence that had elapsed had rather taken from her powers than added to them. Nevertheless, the habit of cheerfulness and sympathy had not deserted her, and it was with a somewhat amused glance that she turned towards Ethel, as she heard her answer by a sigh. These years had dealt more kindly with Etheldred's outward appearance. They had rounded her angles, softened her features, and tinged her cheeks with a touch of red, that took off from the surrounding sallowness. She held herself better, had learnt to keep her hair in order, and the more womanly dress, plain though it was, improved her figure more than could have been hoped in the days of her lank, gawky girlhood. No one could call her pretty, but her countenance had something more than ever pleasing in the animated and thoughtful expression on those marked features. She was sitting near the window, with a book, a dictionary and pencil, as she replied to Margaret, with the sigh that made her sister smile. 'Poor Ethel! I condole with you.' 'And I wonder at you!' said Ethel, especially as Flora and |