Magnum Bonum

aid, "An o

hard to b

could do a gr

l, J

ith her, for she came from the asylum for officers' daughters, and has no home at all, and they must go away to have the house purified. They can't take her with them, for t

is her

for Miss Allen when the sic

on the voyage out to China, and he sent home urgent letters for me to canvass right and left for the orphan's election. You know Robert writes much better than he speaks, and I copied over and

r she is only eighteen. They sent her to Miss Heath's to grow a little older, for though she was at the head of ev

o do with her; but if she is da

feel a plan quite free from Robert's condemnation for enthusiasm or impracticability, and it was not the worse for his influence, that he had been generally with his regiment, and when visiting them was a goo

nement, and alacrity about his slight but active form, altogether with the air of some implement, not meant for ornament but for use, and yet absolutel

, the son had set up his name on the brass plate of the door of a comfortable house in a once fashionable quarter of London; she had joined him there, and they had been as happy as affection and fair success could make them. He became lecturer at a hospital, did much for the poor, both within and without its walls, and had besides a fair practice, both among the tradespeople, and also among the literary, scientific, and artistic world, where their society was valued as much as his skill. Mrs. Brownlow was well used to being called on to d

odd little narrow wedge of a face, sallow and wan, rather too much of teeth and mouth, large greenish-hazel eyes, and a forehead with a look of expansion, partly due t

the cheerful little room which Mrs. Brownlow had carefully decked with little comforts for the convalescent, and with the ornaments likely to please a girl's eye, she suddenly broke into a lit

id you never even

s who went home in the holidays used to describe such rooms to us, but they could never have been so nice as this! Oh! oh! Mrs.

memory of her life, and had taught her at least how to love. Poor child, that happy week had had to serve her ever since, through eleven years of unbroken school! Not that she pitied herself. Everybody had been kind to her-governesses, masters, girls, and all. She had been happy and successful, and had made numerous friends, about whom, as she grew more at home, she freely chatted to Mrs. Brownlow, who was always ready to hear of Mary Ogilvie and Clara Cartwright, and liked to draw out the stories of the girl-world, in which it was plain that Caroline Allen

to her eye and to her soul both at once, and the sense of comfort and beauty and home, after the bareness of

that always broke off just as she began to care about them. She had been thoroughly well grounded, and had a thirst for knowledge too real to ha

just found her trying to make out the Old Eng

ng me off with 'This won't be o

a book with double pleasure if

ey who came in

y that openi

tic was a most f

mess of salt and vinega

ng quite different-milk a

Do you hear, mot

, as she always was when the Doctor caught up any of the little bits of fun that fell

with her previous imaginations. Mr. Brownlow used to make time to take the two ladies out, or to drop in on them at some exhibition, checking the flow of half-droll

, now a governess, whom Mrs. Brownlow had, with some suppressed growls from her son, in

h me," was the answer, as Carey toyed wit

o think of it! I shoul

who has once seen, you know. It will be always w

lled her eyes with tears, more especially as the little creature still looked very fragile-even at the end of a month. She was so tired out with her day of almost rap

r directed to Miss Allen on the side-table. "I will not give it to her

d the Doctor, leaning over the fir

oe?" as there was a pause; and as he replaced the poker, he looked up to her with a colour scarcely to be

e, in his relief that the plunge was made. "I don't s

ine first" (

id. It all comes t

ld do it to-morrow, and have no f

In the midst came the announcement of dinner, during which meal they refrained themselves, and tried to di

o wish for it, though she had never yet seen her ideal daughter-in-law, and the enforced silenc

begin to think

hen I began to realise what it would be to send her back to her treadmill; thou

such a life which makes me think that in her you may have something more worth

hat plentifully fr

you, and later on in life, than if you had

nspire me to make a name, and work out an idea, worth far more than any pounds, shillings, and pence, or even

e as much in love as you p

ide whom Robert had presented to them about a

k you. I always knew you were the very best mo

she will say, t

my chief scruple is whether it be fair to ask a girl to marry a man twice her

of being looked down on. It is possible that she may be startled at first, but I think it will be only at life opening on her; so don't be daunted

eing told that Miss Heath's workmen had finished, and that she must return next Monday morning. It was the Doctor's day to be early at the hospital, and he had had a summons to see some one on the way, so that he was gone before breakfast, when Carey's attempts t

tle purple, green-winged orchis, a cowslip, and a quivering dark-

the characte

arey; "I never tried flowers before

you?" he repeated

h," she said, with a little laugh;

pe it will only

n the holidays!" and she was all one flush of joy, looking

-for work days," he sa

nlow can't wan

us to make home doubly sweet to a busy ma

face bewildered, and then said shyl

what did

tle brown hands into his own, and looking into the widely-opened wondering eyes; while she answered, "if I may,"

ask!" he said; "you belong to us, only to us,

two tears on her cheek when he could see her face,

ssed me before he went aw

sounded, and in the certainty that the announcement

they met Mrs. Brow

her," said

and Carey wa

eal?" said the girl

from books, which had given glimpses into happy homes; and though she had feasted on a few novels during this happy month, they had been very select, and chiefly historical romance. She was at the age when nothing is impossible to youthful dreams, and if Tancredi had come out of the Gerusalemme and thrown himself at her feet, she would hardly have felt it more strangely dream-like than the transformation of her kind doctor into her own Joe: and on the other hand, she had from the first moment nes

aling by her naive questions and remarks such utter ignorance of all matters of common life that Mrs. Brownlow had no scruples in not stirring the ques

d, Mrs. Brownlow said-but that was only to tease the lovers-for a quarter, at which Joe made a snarling howl, whereat Car

s enough to say

to negotiate the matter,

thing than send her back for even a week, to have all manner of n

e?" asked

hort of tha

putting nonsense into her pupils' heads as the doctor could be of the reverse process: so, young teachers not being scarce, Carey's brief conn

n he wound up his affairs, after paying the debts in which his early and imprudent marriage had involved him. He did not seem to have had any relations, and of his wife nothing was known but that she was a Miss Otway, and that he had met her in some colonial quarters. The old lady, with whom the little girl had been left, was her mother's maternal aunt, and had lived on an annuity so s

r could keep out of debt, he must needs go and marry a young girl, just because he thought her uncle was not kind to her. It was the worst thing he could have done, for it made her uncle cast her off on the spot, and then she was killed with harass and poverty. He never held up his head again after losing her, and just died of fever because he was too broken down to have energy to live. There was enough

called Lina, but the name did

hat it could not be given up, and he held that the best must now be made of it, and that it would be more proper, since it was to be, for him to assume the part of father, and let the marriage take place from his house at Kenminster. This was a pr

s part was great, it was accepted; and Caroline was carried off for three weeks to

n on the eve of the wedding, ther

ing, introduced her to quantities of people; but, oh dear! was it absolutely only three weeks since she had been away? It seemed just like three years, and she understood now why the gi

her handsome oval face, fine figure, and her tasteful dress, perfectly befitting a young matron, could not help infinitely outshining the little girlish angular cre

Brownlow's f