A Mere Chance, Vol. 3 of 3

nly when the rare and brief experience has been bought at untold cost of precious years, it is, perhaps, equally true that the majority of marr

anctifies our bereavements, remedies also in

eate, and which, to the mother at least, are supremely and eternally sacred, the innumerable soft webs of habit and association that are woven in days and years of intimate companionship grow, like ivy over a fissu

when she had "settled down," changed and aged, a

e of duty and her characteristic unselfishness prompted her from the first to wear a cheerful face for her husband, and never by wo

gentle and dutiful behaviour, he put himself out of the way to be kind to her, tho

of his affection as he voluntarily bestowed upon her she showed herself always grateful in a meek, pleased way that was very

ried Bluebeard instead of a well-intentioned gentleman, she must have twined herself about him with her tender, deferen

and wife settled down to a life together that, if not rapturously delightful,

generally hours when Mr. Kingston was tired or unwell, and wanted to be nursed and cheered, and to ha

that the house, and the wealth and luxury

ich womanly women love, and only those who have money, and plenty of it, can enjoy-of which years of sordid poverty had taught her the grace and value; and it was no

innumerable pretty things; she enjoyed her drives and her rides, and her visiting and her parties, and her operas and concerts, and h

ing all kinds of helpful, unpretentious service to the poor and miserable, whom

nt to her taking invalids of the lower orders for drives, except upon unfrequented roads and in a generally surreptitio

hicken broth every time she went out; she might spend a little fortune, as she did, in helping on benevolent enterprises of all sorts; and he only laughed at her for being

that she had plenty; and, unlike most husbands and wives in such circumstances, she and Mr. Kingston had n

, to confess that she had spent all her money, and to ask him, with the sweetest wifely meekness, if he could spare her a little more; and to her he never sho

er arms round his neck and kiss him; and, naturally, he would thereafter set forth to his club, feeling proud of himself and pl

st and dearest and best-save one-of all life's many good things, and which

orak, the wife of Graham

f the 18th, and caused a flutter and sensatio

gston will be! An heir to all that fine property at las

favourably, society congratulated Mr. Kingston with effusive and impressive cordiality, which that gentleman

e a pleasant commotion in the great

d heir with a genuine maternal pride, that could not have been more touching or more complimentary

ooms, clothed in all the homely womanliness of her own baby-nursing youth; and Rachel, watching her from her tranquil nest of pillows, forgave her-as

-art coverlid for the cradle, and all sorts of wise advice (

held the tiny creature for a long time in her arms, look

to stay with her, full of importance and responsibility (as the mother of the largest family of them all),

had any sense, but if Mrs. Kingston had been a poor man's wife, which she hoped she would excuse he

Rachel's vocation, and, when she found it, it seemed that she had found a consolation, i

ve five minutes out of her sight, told herself that, after all, the end had justified the means; and even Mrs. Rea

ather what lovely eyes it had, and what small ears, and what perfectly-shaped hands, and how charming it was altogether-much to Mr. Kingston's amusement, and obviously to his immense satisfaction also; an

ing the hearth and kneeling down beside h

eyes, shining with a

s overshadowed, and she looked in the fire again with eyes that shone with te

will like you to be

y consolations. Beatrice, I was reading some verses of Emily Bront?'s the other

outh, forgive, i

d's tide is be

and other ho

ure, but cannot

orget thee! And," she added, more quietly, "I don

, far from it,"

ation disclosed to her. She was deeply thankful to know that Rachel, after all, was happy; but she was no

rived at the Queensland bungalow, and that Roden Dalrymple learned what a change had taken

even than Rachel herself-what that little notice meant. It meant that the g

and clinging heart-it would be able to so

ankful for the comfort that had come to her, t