Christian's Mistake

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t never looks better or more beautiful than in a fierce winter frost-too fierce to melt the snow; when, in early morning, you may pass from college to college, over quadrangles, cou

st sure to be quite alone; you may stand, as Christian was accustomed to do, on any one of the bridges which connect the college buildings and college grounds, and see nothing but the little robin hopping abo

ooks on a winter's morning-so beautiful that it seems an almost equal marvel that nobody should care to see it but yourself, except perhaps a s

winter's sun on the tree-tops, slowly creeping down their trunks and branches? And what blueness, even of a June sky, can equal that sea of space up aloft, across which, instead of shadows and stars, pink and lilac morning clouds are beginning to sail, clearer and brighter ever

t, at least, had never left her; she hoped it never might. It was something to hold by, though all the world slid by like a dream. Very dreamy her life felt still, th

have the little faces about the table. But Miss Gascoigne had said solemnly that "my poor dear sister always breakfasted at nine, and never allo

hen she was Christian Oakley. Yet now and then, in a dim sort of way, her old identity returned to her, as it does to those

s, and to go about her own ways in those grim college rooms, which grew less ghostly now that she knew them better. Already she was getting a little used to her new home, her formal dignities, and her handsome clothes. It was a small thing to

a bevy of freshmen, rushing wildly out of chapel, with their surplices flying behind them like a flock of white-geese?-should have stopped to stare, a little more persistently than gentlemen ought, at the solitary lady, who was walking where she had a perfect right to walk, and at an hour when she could scarcely be suspected of promenading either to observe or to attract observation. But Christian went right on, wi

member that she had ever thought of life as any thing different from this, or had ever planned an existence of boundless enjoyment, freedom, and beauty, travel in foreign countries, seeing of mountains, cities, pictures, palaces, hearing of grand music,

ess of a vain assurance. "And whether I was right or wrong m

th that look of grieved superior surprise with which he always obeyed any novel order, or wat

ul morning

if to imply that bedmakers were the only women whose bu

at ought ever to be seen within college boundaries. But he was a decent man, with an overwhelming reverence fo

ss, he looked up with a smile, as he always did the instant his wife's foot entered the door. But his sister appeared very

dinary propensity for morning walks. I never di

urn, which gave her the one home-like feeling she had at the Lodge.

y s

, and harms nobody else,

thing that nobody else does-to go wandering about streets and colleges when all respe

ry body alike. "What Miss Grey bears, I suppose I can," thought she to herself when many times during the last two weeks she had been addressed in a manner which somewhat surprised her, as being a

room, where the master was deeply busied in searching for a book, "but I object to

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Only think, Maria, if our poor d

back and sat himself placidly down at the breakfast-table, with

d were silenced-as, by a most fortunate instinct, women generally are in presence of their masculine relatives. They may quarrel enough among themselves, but they seem to feel that m

ok, which for years Miss Gascoigne averred he had always kept beside him at meal-times. Not good behavior i

of domestic altar, before which every one cast down his or her offering, great or small, of pleasantness and peace; where for at least a brief space in the day all annoyances were laid aside, all stormy tempers hushed, a

e like angry wasps, settling and stinging unawares, and making every one uncomfortable, not knowing who might be the next victim stung. True, there was but one person to sting, for Miss Grey never said ill-natured things; but then she said ill-advised and mal-apropos things, and she had such an air of

hat she, too, had a big book into which she could plunge herself instead of having to sit there, politely smiling, saying "Yes," and "No," and "Certainly." At last she sank into a troubled silence tried to listen as well as she could, and yet allow the other half of her mind to wander a

ary years! Perhaps; for many another year before; but into that Christian would not

g to be her prominent thought, and it warmed her heart th

nk I never had such good tea in all my life as since

t having been used to a servant to do it for her. And she must have had such excellent practice at Mrs.

Christian, quietly. "At least I

How very

women in a manner that nothing else will. If I had a house"-she stopped and blushed deeply for having let old things-ah! they seemed so very old, and far back now-make her forge

hought he had not been attending to the conversation. "Then

th Dr. Grey without finding out that when the master of the house did choose to exercise authority, he must be obeyed. He very seldom interfered, especially as regarded the children; like most simple-minded men, he was humble about himself, and left a great deal to his wo

e had at first supposed him. And when, after an interval of awful silence, during which Miss Gascoigne looked like a brooding hurricane, and Miss Grey frightened out of her life at what was next to happen, he rose and said, "Now remember, Aunt Henrietta, you or my wife are to give orders to Phillis that the children come to us at lunchtime to-day," Christian was conscious of a slight throb at heart. It was to see in her husband-the man to whom, what

alnut-tree, the more ye thra

of truth under it, that no woman ever perfectly loves

fter-thought, put in his head again, saying, "Christian, I want you!" sh