CHAPTER XIX.
From that evening till the day Mrs.Ashleigh and Lilian went on the dreaded visit, I was always at their house, when my avocations allowed me to steal to it; and during those few days, the happiest I had ever known, it seemed to me that years could not have more deepened my intimacy with Lilian's exquisite nature, made me more reverential of its purity, or more enamoured of its sweetness.

I could detect in her but one fault, and I rebuked myself for believing that it was a fault.
We see many who neglect the minor duties of life, who lack watchful forethought and considerate care for others, and we recognize the cause of this failing in levity or egotism.

Certainly, neither of those tendencies of character could be ascribed to Lilian.

Yet still in daily trifles there was something of that neglect, some lack of that care and forethought.

She loved her mother with fondness and devotion, yet it never occurred to her to aid in those petty household cares in which her mother centred so much of habitual interest.