her eyes, and calm her whole agitated being? Lucy felt her head go round and round with that sense of delightful incomprehensible power. She could do it, there was no doubt or question; and how willing she would be to do it, how glad, how eager? She put her papers back again, with her whole frame tingling and in commotion. A girl is seldom so excited, except by something about a lover, some shadow of the new life coming over her, some revelation of the mysteries and sweetness to come; but Lucy had never been awakened on this subject. She knew nothing about love, and cared less, if that can be believed, but the very breath was taken away from her and her head made giddy by this sudden consciousness of power. Next day Lucy had a visitor, in the morning, before there was any question of visitors, when she and Jock were seated alone. It was Mary Russell, with a little flush on her face, and somewhat, breathless, who appeared behind the maid when the door opened. Mary was the plainest one of the family, a girl with a round cheerful face, and no special beauty of any kind--not like her handsome brother, who had the air of a man of fashion, or Katie, who was one of the prettiest, girls at Mrs. Stone’s. It was not Mary’s _rôle_ to be pretty; she was the useful one of the family. In most cases there is one member of a household specially devoted to this part; and if it had happened that Mary had grown up beautiful, as sometimes happens, no doubt her claims would have been steadily ignored by the rest of the family, who thought of her in no such light. She was the one who did what the others did not like to do. She came in with a little hesitation, with a blush and shy air of deprecating anxiety. The blush deepened as she met Lucy’s surprised look; she sat down with an awkwardness that was not natural to her. She was scarcely seventeen, younger than Lucy; but had already learned so much of the darker side of life. Yet there was in Mary none of the self-contrasts nor the anxious adulation of her mother. She had so much to do, she had not time to think how much worse off she was than this other girl, her contemporary in life. “I came to see--when it would suit you to send-- Master Trevor,” Mary said, faltering a little. “Mamma feared--that perhaps you might be discouraged by seeing that the house was not-- But I will see that he is very well taken care of, and--regular with his lessons. I am always with them. It is a holiday to-day, that is why I have come out.”