'My missus had one on at th' party at John Foster's last March, and yo' admired it a deal. And Philip, he thought o' nothing but how he could get yo' just such another, and he set a vast o' folk agait for to meet wi' its marrow; and what he did just the very day afore he went away so mysterious was to write through Dawson Brothers, o' Wakefield, to Dublin, and order that one should be woven for yo'. Jemima had to cut a bit off hers for to give him t' exact colour.' Sylvia did not say anything but that it was very pretty, in a low voice, and then she quickly left the shop, much to Coulson's displeasure. All the afternoon she was unusually quiet and depressed. Alice Rose, sitting helpless in her chair, watched her with keen eyes. At length, after one of Sylvia's deep, unconscious sighs, the old woman spoke: 'It's religion as must comfort thee, child, as it's done many a one afore thee.' 'How?' said Sylvia, looking up, startled to find herself an object of notice. 'How?' (The answer was not quite so ready as the precept had been.) 'Read thy Bible, and thou wilt learn.' 'But I cannot read,' said Sylvia, too desperate any longer to conceal her ignorance. 'Not read! and thee Philip's wife as was such a great scholar! Of a surety the ways o' this life are crooked! There was our Hester, as can read as well as any minister, and Philip passes over her to go and choose a young lass as cannot read her Bible.' 'Was Philip and Hester----' Sylvia paused, for though a new curiosity had dawned upon her, she did not know how to word her question. 'Many a time and oft have I seen Hester take comfort in her Bible when Philip was following after thee. She knew where to go for consolation.' 'I'd fain read,' said Sylvia, humbly, 'if anybody would learn me; for perhaps it might do me good; I'm noane so happy.' Her eyes, as she looked up at Alice's stern countenance, were full of tears. The old woman saw it, and was touched, although she did not immediately show her sympathy. But she took her own time, and made no reply. The next day, however, she bade Sylvia come to her, and then and there, as if her pupil had been a little child, she began to teach Sylvia to read the first chapter of Genesis; for all other reading but the Scriptures was as vanity to her, and she would not condescend to the weakness of other books. Sylvia was now, as ever, slow at book-learning; but she was meek and desirous to be taught, and her willingness in this respect pleased Alice, and drew her singularly towards one who, from being a pupil, might become a convert. All this time Sylvia never lost the curiosity that had been excited by the few words Alice had let drop about Hester and Philip, and by degrees she approached the subject again, and had the idea then started confirmed by Alice, who had no scruple in using the past experience of her own, of her daughter's, or of any one's life, as an instrument to prove the vanity of setting the heart on anything earthly.