As a general thing, with all due deference to poetic opinion, “love is (_not_) loveliest when embalmed in tears.” But Mrs. Grey was an exception to many rules. Her emotion was usually of the April‐shower sort, gentle, refreshing, even beautifying. Very little she knew of the storm of suffering which desolates the heart, and whose ravages leave a lasting impression upon the features. Such emotions also sometimes, but rarely, leave a beauty behind them; but it is a beauty not of this world, the beauty of holiness; not of Mrs. Grey’s kind, for it never would have touched Mr. Sinclair as hers did now. “My dear Mrs. Grey,” he said, taking her hand in both his, “how grieved I am to see you showing so plainly the results of care and watching! Privileged as he must be who is the recipient of such angelic ministrations, I must yet protest—as a friend, I trust I have a right to do so—against such over‐exertion on your part. You will be ill yourself; and then who or what will console me?” Mr. Sinclair knew this was a fiction. He knew well enough that Mrs. Grey had never looked fresher or prettier in her life. But the _rôle_ he had assigned to himself was the dangerously tender one of sympathy; and where a sufficient occasion for displaying his part was not supplied, he must needs invent one. Clara was not altogether deceived, for, as she put her lace‐bordered handkerchief to her eyes, from which the tears began again to flow, she replied: “You are mistaken, Mr. Sinclair. I am quite well, and not at all fatigued; while dear Assunta is thin and pale, and thoroughly worn out with all she has done. I can never be grateful enough to her.” Had the lady raised her eyes, she might have been astonished at the expression of contempt which curled Mr. Sinclair’s somewhat hard mouth, as he rejoined: “Yes; I quite understand Miss Howard’s _motive_ in her devotion to her guardian, and it is not strange that she should be pale. How do you suppose I should look and feel if the dearest friend I have in the world were at this moment lying in her brother’s place?”