"Do you know what I have been thinking of?" she said. "Picturing everybody's heart as a field, with tiny blades of corn springing up, just as Mrs. Barker told us. And I have been wondering how everybody kept their field—whether they cleared the weeds away as they sprang up, or whether they were letting them grow high and thick until the tender green blades, or ears of corn, could not be seen." "Don't," said Mabel, in a gasping voice. Isabel looked at her cousin. "Mustn't we talk about such things?" she said. "I think we ought to mind our own business in this as well as everything else," said Mabel sharply. She had taken her cousin's speech as a reproof to herself, and she was in no mood to endure that from anybody to-night. "I see," said Isabel meekly. "We are to give all our attention to our own weeds, and see that they do not choke the seed in us." "If we have the seed, that is," said Mabel, rather less sharply. "But—but will not God plant this seed, if we ask it, in all of us?" said Isabel, in some bewilderment. Mabel shook her head. "I don't know," she said. And again came the words to her mind, "'Tis a point I long to know." "Yes, I wish I did know," she added aloud. "But I thought it was quite certain that God would give us this good seed, his Holy Spirit, and that we were to root out the weeds that it might not be choked," said Isabel. It was clear that she had been thinking a good deal about the matter, and Mabel was vexed that she had no answer ready for what seemed such a very simple question—she, who had been a Sunday-school teacher and had set herself to teach Mrs. Barker this parable of the sower, did not know what reply to give to her ignorant little cousin. At last she took refuge in the unseemly surroundings for such a conversation: "People will wonder what we are talking about," she said. "A gay musical party like this is not the right place for a religious conversation." This silenced Isabel, but did not prevent her thinking. Neither could Mabel prevent her own thoughts from being occupied in a similar way. No one thought it worth while to disturb them with conversation. They were the youngest of the party, and so they sat together in their corner almost unnoticed and quite undisturbed, except as Mr. Randolph found time occasionally to come and say a few words to them about the music or the players. So Mabel had plenty of time to meditate over the question that had disturbed her more than once since her visit to the old woman's cottage. —————— CHAPTER VI. A NEW TROUBLE. NO sooner was Mabel freed from the anxiety concerning her music than the ghost of another trouble rose before her. The silk dress she had bought had not been paid for, and she did not know how the money was to be obtained to pay for it.