"Why—why, he kissed me!" And Anna,
red with shame, hid her face in my lap. "It
was very wrong, I know," she continued, after a
little while, "but I was not twenty, and it
seemed so natural for him to do it. I felt very
happy at first, but then I was frightened,
because motherless girls cannot be too careful in
their conduct. So I said hurriedly, 'I will
register your letter now, Mr. Stephen,' and we
went into the office; but my hand trembled till
I could not hold the pen, and Stephen had to
copy the address and wait till I could sign the
receipt. 'I have not vexed you, Anna?' he said;
'only say I have not vexed you!' 'Not
altogether,' I told him; 'but think of your
father, how angry he would be!' 'That will
all come right in the end he said; 'my father
has some sterling sense, and when he knows
you—- ' Stephen went away before Ettie and
Rhoda came back, and I have never seen him
since."

"Never seen him since!" I echoed.

"Nor heard from him! He left home that
night and has never returned. I always know
where he is, because his mother writes to him
often, and I never miss seeing his answers. I
fancy I can tell from the writing on the
envelopes what changes have been effected in him.
He does not write the same hand now that he did
when he first went away; he always uses one
seal, with the motto 'Toujours le même;' and
do you know, I believe it heartily, Stephen will
never change to me."

I endeavoured to combat and to shake her
belief, but seven years had rooted it in her
peculiar nature too firmly for my arguments; I
felt sure that she would be deceived and
disappointed, but at last, in pity, I desisted from
expostulation, and as the night was wearing on
we had soon plenty to do.

There came a loud knock at the door, and my
father's bell was rung sharply. Anna hastened
to unlock the door, and a letter-carrier staggered
into the house with a heavy load of bags, which
were immediately opened and their contents
emptied into large wicker baskets. There were
bundles upon bundles of letters, with red, green,
yellow, blue, and white bills, containing different
entries, enough to bewilder the most self-
contained person. All was hot and breathless haste.
I heartily wished that those suspicious and
querulous old maids and betrothed young ladies,
who are always imagining their interesting
correspondence is fraudulently investigated in the
post-office, had to take a turn at that hurried
labour, which engrossed every moment and every
faculty.

My father was in many respects well fitted
for his post. Like some other men, he
was far more careful and solicitous for the
business of others than for his own, so he
attended well to the post-office, lest he should
unintentionally injure any one whose letters
might be delayed; and Anna was even painfully
imbued with the same fear, that, by missending
or retarding a letter, she might be the innocent
cause of domestic or business misfortunes. My
father should have been able to devote himself
to the affairs of the office alone; but his salary
as postmaster was only 130l. a year, and the
necessity of having a house in the centre of the
town compelled him to give 40l. a year in rent,
which left of his government salary only 90l.
for the maintenance of a family, three of whom
were employed almost constantly, day and night,
in the service of the public. We were
consequently obliged to continue the business of the
stationer's shop, which, badly managed as it was,
added about 30l. to our income, though it
greatly increased the anxiety and confinement
that had destroyed Anna's health, and soon
began to tell upon my own.

I applied myself diligently to my new duties
as post-office clerk, which are not unsuited to
women in a town like ours, as they require
the unspeculative perseverance, obedience, and
the patience under petty annoyances, which
many women possess, or to which they are
trained. We did not shrink from the monotony
and confinement as most young men would have
done, and it is at once evident that if we two
and our father would give our whole time and
energy for 90l. a year without expectation of a
promotion, we were willing to work for a much
lower wage. Yet I believe that in England the
question is not how to grind down the public
servants to the lowest salary, but how to provide
the most competent persons for each office at a
suitable remuneration. My father had rendered
efficient service to our neighbourhood for nearly
forty years, but his age—bordering upon seventy—
and his increasing infirmities, no longer permitted
him to perform his duties as the public interest
required: what was to be done with him?

For some time my father's manner had filled
me with indefinable apprehensions. He was
oppressed and melancholy, and appeared too
preoccupied for attention to business. He left his
letters for us to answer, and, instead of reading
as was his wont in every leisure hour, he would
sit silently watching us, now and then making
remarks upon pur appearance or occupation.

"Mary," said my father, one day after a long
silence, "have you a white dress on?"

"No, father," I replied, looking at him
anxiously.

"Then, God help me!" he cried, "I am at last
blind. There is nothing before my eyes but a
dim, floating vapour. I was not sure you were
there till you answered me. Are Ettie and
Anna in the room?"

"No," I said; and I rose to look closer into
his dear eyes, which had always rested on us in
kindness and intelligence until now.

"Mary, you have the strongest mind among
us," he continued, "therefore you must hear the
truth first. I have been losing my sight
gradually. Now it is irrecoverably gone. Everything
seems to have an undefined and lustrous
outline."

"Oh, we will have the best aid and advice,"
I said, hopefully. "Look at me steadily. I will
stand in a full light, and you will distinguish
my features."