.

THE PRACTICAL FRIEND.
When her husband had set forth, Amy seated herself in the study and took up a new library volume as if to read.

But she had no real intention of doing so; it was always disagreeable to her to sit in the manner of one totally unoccupied, with hands on lap, and even when she consciously gave herself up to musing an open book was generally before her.

She did not, in truth, read much nowadays; since the birth of her child she had seemed to care less than before for disinterested study.

If a new novel that had succeeded came into her hands she perused it in a very practical spirit, commenting to Reardon on the features of the work which had made it popular; formerly, she would have thought much more of its purely literary merits, for which her eye was very keen.