valuable, it comes from my heart." There was a certain literal truth in this, because the brooch was one which Mrs. Pamflett was in the habit of wearing; it might not have been considered a very suitable gift for a young girl like Phoebe, as it contained a lock of some dead-and-gone person's hair, arranged as a feather or a curl over a tombstone. Once upon a time it doubtless had a meaning, and might have brought a light of joy or sorrow to special human eyes; but the memories which sanctified it being deader than the deadest ghost that superstition could conjure up, it certainly could not be considered a suitable gift for Phoebe. Its fatal meaning for her lay in the future. When Mrs. Pamflett said to Phoebe that perhaps she would like to go and meet her friends at the railway station, she thought it likely that Jeremiah would be in the train. He had not told her by which train he was coming, and her desire was to give him an opportunity of walking home with Phoebe. She did not betray herself when she saw Phoebe return in the company of the Lethbridges and without Jeremiah. She possessed a gift invaluable to sly, secretive natures--the gift of absolute self-repression. Phoebe introduced Mrs. Pamflett to her friends. Aunt Leth was already acquainted with her, and was astonished at the graciousness and amiability of the housekeeper, her previous experience of her having been quite the reverse. Uncle Leth nodded and said, "How d'ye do?" but Fanny was rather stiff--"uppish," as Mrs. Pamflett subsequently told her son. "Tea will not be ready for half an hour or so," said Mrs. Pamflett, aside, to Phoebe. "I have set it upstairs in your favourite room." "O," was Phoebe's delighted rejoinder, "how kind of you!" "I want you to love me," said Mrs. Pamflett. "If you find that my only wish is to please you, perhaps you will." "Indeed I will," said Phoebe; and thought, "Perhaps my father will love me too." She asked the Lethbridges to wait a moment or two, and she went to her father's room. "Aunt and uncle are here, and my cousins." "What has that to do with me?" he asked. "May they come up and see you, father?" "No," he replied; "I can't be bothered. They wish to see me as little as I wish to see them." While this last question was being asked and answered, Mrs. Pamflett entered the room. "I think you should see them, sir," she said. "Why?" he asked. "As a mark of politeness," said Mrs. Pamflett. "Mr. Lethbridge and your nephew and niece have never been here before, and they might think it rude of you." "Do I care if they do?" he snarled. "It is not that," she answered, calmly, "but it is Miss Phoebe's birthday." "Mrs. Pamflett is very kind," said Phoebe, nervously, "but if you don't wish, father----" "I wish to do what is right," he said, very coolly, as was his habit when he was opposed.