"You speak as though you were a child to be punished for being naughty by being put in a corner," said he. "Shall we go and walk? we may meet the carriage, and you can still have your drive." Frederica hesitated, but only a moment. "You were reading," said she. "I was waiting for you, and now we must hasten, for the best of the afternoon is passing." They did not meet the carriage, though they went a long way round, hoping to do so. Frederica was not sorry: she never forgot that walk home in the twilight. As it grew dark she put her hand into that of her friend, as simply as a little child might have done, and for a while she had most of the talk to herself. She told him more than she had ever told any one before about their mother, and their old home and their way of life; and sometimes he smiled, and sometimes he was deeply touched, as she dwelt with quite unconscious pathos on some of the incidents of those days. Her face clouded as they drew near the house. "I am almost afraid to go in," said she. "Lest you should be naughty again? No, you will not," said her friend. "See, I will give you something to prevent it: `Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.'" "Thank you," said Frederica, without looking up. "A month is a long time, two months perhaps." "But it will soon pass, and summer will soon be here, and who knows what summer may bring?" "And this afternoon has not been so bad," said Frederica. No time after that was so very bad. Frederica kept herself conscientiously busy for one thing, and she kept Tessie busy also. Their friends made pleasures for them. They had walks with Captain Clare which were always delightful, and drives with their sister Cecilia, and one day they went with them to visit their brothers, whose school was not so very far away, and this they enjoyed wonderfully. Frederica, who had had few letters in the course of her life, took great delight in those of her brother Edgar. Besides bringing good news of her sister's health and happiness, they were full of interest for other reasons, and they never failed to contain just a word or two to remind the sisters at home that all were alike safe in the best keeping. And better than all other helps towards patience and content was the young girl's trust in Him who had brought them to a safe place. On Him she was learning to rest more lovingly every day. She suffered a good deal at first; but peace came and stayed, not quite the perfect peace promised to them whose trust is entire and full, but even that came later. Tessie watched her sister narrowly, and expressed her opinion of her way of taking it all by little shrugs and laughing protests, in which Frederica sometimes fancied there was a contemptuous echo. But Tessie was subdued at last by her sister's never-failing gentleness and sweetness, and showed it by devotion to her duties, and by deference to her sister's wishes in little things.