I live in the midst of miracles of arrangement, half of which I admit, are my own; I go about on tiptoe, I watch for every sound, I feel every breath, and yet I try all the while to seem as smooth as old satin dyed rose-colour.

Have you ever thought of me," she asked, "as really feeling as I do ?" Her companion, conspicuously, required to be clear.

"Jealous, unhappy, tormented--?
No," said Mrs.Assingham; "but at the same time--and though you may laugh at me for it!--I'm bound to confess that I've never been so awfully sure of what I may call knowing you.

Here you are indeed, as you say--such a deep little person! I've never imagined your existence poisoned, and, since you wish to know if I consider that it need be, I've not the least difficulty in speaking on the spot.

Nothing, decidedly, strikes me as more unnecessary." For a minute after this they remained face to face; Maggie had sprung up while her friend sat enthroned, and, after moving to and fro in her intensity, now paused to receive the light she had invoked.