the young lady just coming down the lane, quite accidentally.

'It was so singular,' as she afterward told her sister, 'that Tom should have been coming up the lane just as she was going down it; and then he would insist upon accompanying her to the township. Not that she always permitted that, for neighbours do talk so; but, it being a fine evening, they had strolled another way.'

Tom thought her so lady-like in her movements, and he could not venture to be rough and rude as he had been with the other girls. She always liked his jokes so, that he contrived to have a few ready, only they were selected ones, and not indiscriminately taken. She evidently enjoyed details of the engagement of his time, and he gratified her accordingly. Now and then, when tempted to jerk out an expression more witty than wise, he looked into the blue. depths of her eyes, and his folly seemed to drop out of sight. Once and again, when the old rollicking humour was bursting forth, and he was ready to spring over a five-barred gate, or spin her round as he did his sisters, he would be arrested by some simple word from her lips that softened and tamed him.

For when she spoke,

Sweet words, like dropping honey, she did shed.

Then, as it would not be fair and right for him to spend all the hour with an account of what he had done and said throughout the day, he waited upon

the aforesaid honeyed speech, and quite approved of the flavour thereof.

And what did she talk about?

She spoke of what concerned him. Gentle counsels were gently administered. Even rebukes were so sweetly mingled with kindness, that he got all the benefit from the castigation without the sense of smart, as children do from rhubarb when disguised in jam.

She did more. As if sensible that her lover wanted something to make him perfect in her eyes, and add to his happiness in the bargain, she discoursed of heaven above and earth below in such a way as to lead out the inner life of the young man. He was led to the discovery of something beyond his nature, and yet in harmony with it.

He read poetry to her, and pieces of her own judicious selection. Upon such she enlarged, and that with such grace and real eloquence, that poor Tom waited upon the speech with open mouth and tear-lit eyes. Longfellow has said that, next to being a great poet, is the power of understanding one. This was the business of the 'Young Man's Best Companion.'

Until of late a primrose by the river's brink, a primrose only was to him. He was induced to look again. at it, and through the reflected light from those dreamy, slumbering eyes, and he was presented with new forms and new beauties, awakening new and pleasing emotions.

So it was in music. With established relations, so that Tom could spend an hour with her alone, there was an equal march in the young man's progress in sounds as in sights. She was never sure her pupil properly comprehended those lines of Mrs Browning's : 'This song of soul I struggle to outbear,

Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,

And utter all myself into the air.'

But the apt scholar was supposed to understand it when her eyes turned from the keys to meet his.

Julia proudly acknowledged the conversion through her instrumentality. It was a tribute of praise to herself, not less than a boon to him. Yet she had the good sense not to joke about the change. She accepted it with joy. There was such a toning down of that wild principle in the young fellow, which made him tenfold more attractive. The ardour was there, the freshness was there, the fun was there, only these were all subjected to an intellectual force which mellowed their character.

To Tom himself the change was satisfactory for two reasons; he really felt himself a nobler and a better man, and he knew himself better suited to the tastes of the being whom he loved above all, and with whom he hoped still more to develope the highest and best of qualities.

It must not be imagined that Tom was becoming a milksop or a drone. In being more refined he lost much of the clownish roughness, but gained in true

manliness. If more of the gentleman in bearing, if more of the artist in feeling, he was more of the man in the soundness of his understanding, the delicacy of his perceptions, the purpose of his being.

And what had been the effect of this intercourse upon the girl herself?

A change had come over her. It was not of so striking a character, but was obvious enough to those at home as well as to her lover.

Most young ladies, when in love, are supposed to ramble abroad alone in contemplation, or sit alone in silent thought. Mathematics and metaphysics are not then generally supposed to be the subject matter of thought. But Julia, strange to say, had well-nigh left off her old habits of seclusion and rumination, and bustled about the house as if emulous of her sister's activity. She laughed quite gaily very frequently, and was even detected in the manufacture of a pun.

To her sister this cheerfulness was a surprise, and to her mother a source of delight. What must it have been to Tom? If less boisterous in mirth himself, he did not the less admire her advancing bright

ness.

She grew not only more animated in conversation, but more unselfish in conduct. Instead of moodily dwelling upon herself, her own sensations, her own. fancies, she turned to others, seeking to interest herself in their affairs, helping them in their duties, and sympathising in their cares. One immediate effect of

this was, that Annie lost a monitress, but found a friend.

In her musical lessons she indulged in livelier strains, and her songs partook of less sentiment and more vigour. In her reading she took up practical subjects in preference to romantic ones. Her thoughts were more transparent, her sentiments more healthy. Never negligent of her religious duties, there was now less of the recluse in her devotions, and she practised more of smiling praise than of mournful meditations.

She undertook a larger share of domestic work, assisted in prosaic needlework, and asked questions upon receipts and patterns. She engaged in vigorous exercise, walked long distances, and was not idle in commissions for friends and neighbours.

By this, too, she grew stronger in frame, firmer in step, fresher in colour. Her appetite was better, her happiness was increased, and her beauty of person secured universal applause.

The courtship had improved the pair.

CHAPTER XXI.

HORACE AND ANNIE.

AND how did the other couple get on?

Quite satisfactory to the couple themselves. As Tom and his lady were educating each other, so it