In countenance Mark was not at all like his father, resembling his mother in feature and complexion; but many a time and oft the widow’s heart beat and tears rose in her eyes as she recognised in her boy traits which assured her of that higher affinity of heart and mind which is infinitely deeper than any trick of feature or complexion. It is a mistake to suppose that because boys are often rough in speech and careless in manner there is any reason for it in their boyhood, and though the braggart and the bully naturally attract most attention, and do what they can to spoil the beauty of the little republics in which they live, we confidently believe that there are hundreds of boys who have no taste for bullying and coarse talking any more than for lying and thieving, and who pass through their school career pure in speech and gentle in nature. Certainly Mark Fenner never need have blushed if his mother had heard all he said any more than if she had read the thoughts of his heart; yet Mark was almost as good in the cricket-field as in the school-room, he was an adroit swimmer, a stout wrestler, and, better than all, an excellent walker. Eveline, who was just two years younger than her brother, was a bright, healthy damsel, not specially clever, but one of those girls who have a truly feminine and harmonising influence in families, modest and happy in temper, always more occupied by care for others than for herself. She had acquired most of her knowledge from her mother, and would have been pronounced by many a young lady of the nineteenth century “frightfully ignorant.” I am afraid it would have cost her some thought to define what is meant by physical, political, and commercial geography; physiology as a science was unknown to her, but she had been an apt pupil in those graces which no board of examiners can gauge, but without which English homes would never have been the desire and the admiration of foreigners, the safety and the comfort of her sons. Eveline was sufficiently well-read to take an interest in wholesome books and understand political questions, when they were discussed; and for this she was much indebted to her uncle, with whom she was a great favourite, and whom she often accompanied on his parish rambles, when he beguiled the way and relieved his own heart by gently philosophising after a fashion too ideal to find favour with Lady Elgitha, but which sounded very sweetly in the ears of the young Eveline.