"Too true," thought the doctor, though be said nothing, for that whisper came in his mind, and that troubled look in his face.

The

"How proud and fond her mother would be of her," said Mrs. Wendon, "and how pretty she looks in that new blue merino. I have bought her a blue silk and a blue de laine, and the inside trimmings and strings of her bonnet are blue. I am glad blue is so becoming to her, it is a color of which I never get tired. The loveliest of human faces, the most graceful of human forms, look more lovely and charming in. blue. It is a color that will never be out of style. Magenta, Solferino and cerise, visible black and invisible green, immaculate white and imperial purple will rival it in vain Each coming spring, as long as blue violets open their eyes, or blue forget-me-nots close their starry petals, the fairest blonde will choose its etherial folds, and the sparkling brunette will adopt its deeper hues. In every festive hour, some first stars of fashion will be adorned with blue. King of Kings has adopted it for His full-dress evening color; every magnificent gathering of stars, every resplendent reception of courtiers around His throne, are robed in radiant blue. The illustrious Creator, and magnificent Patron of Art, Author and Artist, has made it the color laureate. His golden psalm of night, His grand proem of creation, His illuminated manuscript, His brilliant vignette, His Bible of the Ages, is electrotyped in blue, bound in celestial ultramarine. I suppose it is true, because every body quotes it so often, that beauty unadorned is adorned the most, but I think beautiful hair looks more beautiful, smooth and glossy when becomingly arranged, complexion and eyes grow fairer and brighter, when the person is tastefully dressed. The best artist hangs his picture in a good light, with a handsome frame, and near some object to heighten its tone or soften its coloring. The charm of many agreeable forms and faces is in the affluence and elegance in which they are set like gems-put them in a log house, in a plain coarse dress, the beauty might be gone. Surrounding happy and fortunate circumstances give a strange charm to many-see them elsewhere, in ordinary and uncongenial circumstances, the illusion is gone. Every good-looking person well dressed, is at times pretty. If people would only adopt the fashion that becomes them, without trying to shine and appear

in every extreme and new style, how much better they might look."

Nepenthe doesn't seem like a jewel in a new setting," said the doctor, when she had been with them several months. "She acts as if accustomed to all the refinements of life."

"I like to watch her,” said Mrs. Wendon; "she stands and looks at pictures as if entranced, she listens so absorbed if I play any pathetic air, and she arranges flowers with exquisite taste. The other day I saw her with a bunch of roses in her hands, crying as if her heart would break. I did not disturb her. She came in an hour afterwards perfectly composed-and that picture of the dying mother in the library, I had to put away, she seemed to be so fascinated with it, and was so agitated as she gazed at it. There's another thing that seemed strange to me when I arranged Nepenthe's room, I put that little Quaker pin cushion on her heau. I thought it would please the child's fancy. There were pins up and down the skirt like buttons. She had it in her hands once when I went in the room, and was crying. She put the cushion down as I came in, and then she asked me if I would let her lay it away in her drawer. Why,' said I, 'not let it be on the bureau, and use the pins wher you want them? It is only a pin I would rather let them be as they are,' said she, quietly. I wondered at this strange wish of the child, and since then I found the cushion laid carefully away in her drawer; not a pin was touched."

cushion.'

"She has very strong feelings," said the doctor, "and some early associations may still be very fresh in her mind."

66

'Walter," said Mrs. Wendon, laying her hand on the doctor's arm, I think the child may prove an angel to us both. She has almost made you perfection in my eyes, and I have had many feelings since she came I never had before. If I disliked at first the idea of you bringing home a hospital patient about whom we knew nothing, she has cured me long ago of all these feelings. I believe when we do any thing for pity's sake, joy is brighter, sorrow lighter, duty clearer, and all through life's mingled tide, is an undercurrent of melody."

"Minnie," said the doctor, suddenly, after writing the

name in a new Bible he had been getting for Nepenthe, "don't you think Nepenthe rather a long, positive name for a child? Can't we make some contraction of the word ?"

·

"6 'Did you hear Levi Longman ask me when we were in the country," said Mrs. Wendon, "why you call me Minnie? Why,' said I, Mr. Longman, don't you think it a pretty name?' 'I never like contractions,' said he. 'I was always thankful I had a name that could not be trifled with.''

Nobody would think of contracting him or his name either," said the doctor, with a curious twinkle in his eye, he would keep stiff and starched, in the folds nature gave him; but then there isn't much nature about him--he is one of those human petrifactions washed up on the shore of creation and furnished with the fossil remains of some antediluvian heart. No matter how warm the day is he cools me when he looks at me. I really believe, as Dr. Holmes says, he would reprove his kitten, if he found her playing with her tail, for useless experiments and idling time, and for undue lightness of manner. I would like to look into

his school; his scholars must have their mouths fixed for saying prisms and prunes' all day."

"Then those children in the family where we boarded all had such long names," said Mrs. Wendon. "James Richard Henry, etc., and no matter how young the youngster was, the whole of his long name was distinctly uttered every time he was addressed."

"In

I

I would not give my child an ugly name if all my ancestors way back to Adam had them," said the doctor. my grandfather's family there were three brothers-Jonah Jonathan, Abiathar Benajah and Nehemiah Nicodemus. wonder why my sister Mary wasn't called Mehitabel Jerusalem. The name is the first association we connect with an unknown individual. Think of an artist getting along well under the name of Job Smith. People are so fastidious about names that musical characters go off to Italy and come back celebrities with some new suffix to old names or an entire new cognomen. Had Jenny Lind been Peggy Snooks, we would not have liked her quite as well. Think of Peggy Snooks Polkas, Peggy Snooks bonnets. The name never would have been the rage. You may say fudge! Minnie, but you must

acknowledge it to be true. All the Carolines are Carries now Janes Jennies, and Minervas Minnies," he added laughing. "But see that child-look out of the window, she is arranging a most beautiful boquet."

"Doctor! John says Mrs. Cherrytree has broken her limb on the railroad," said Margaret, coming up the basement stairs as Dr. Wendon stood in the hall putting on his

overcoat.

John Trap has heard of Mrs. Cherrytree's misfortunes, and has gone around to get Cherrytree to sue the company for damages, for six thousand dollars.

"Mrs. Cherrytree has a fortune in her own right, so she will probably recover heavy damages," thought the doctor. "If she were a poor washerwoman two hundred dollars would be enough. Trap will get a large fee, and so he will get a big verdict. He'll talk to the intelligent jury' until he makes them believe anything. He is as cunning as a fox."

As the doctor drove hastily around the corner, he saw John Trap and the hollow-eyed, long-nosed nurse of the hospital crossing a street together. They seemed to be in earnest conversation, and she handed Mr. Trap just as they passsed out of the doctor's sight, a small roll of bills. She was looking really quite angry, and almost cross. They seemed on very familiar terms. I kept back the letters," said the woman in a low tone, "and so the property could not be redeemed."

"The Stuart estate is worth a fortune now," thought Trap, though he said nothing, but looked all at once pleased and satisfied with his shrewdness and success. "Mrs. Elliott shall pay me two thousand for my services for her.”

CHAPTER XI.

THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR.

"While powers unjust and guilt prevail,
Stone I would be, and sleep I hail.
To see or feel would each be woe;
Oh! wake me not, and whisper low."

MICHAEL ANGELO.

NEPENTHE had been at Mrs. Wendon's about a year when Mrs. Wendon's cook was ill-quite ill. It was the recurrence of some constitutional malady. She asked leave of absence a week-meanwhile, one as competent as herself should supply her place.

She

The request was granted-the new cook was installed. Nepenthe went down one day to get something in the kitchen-it was only the day after the new cook came. was tall and thin, with brown false hair parted low over her forehead. She wore a closely fitting cap with a plain border. She looked very cross at Nepenthe, and muttered something as she stole back quietly up stairs, as if escaping the presence of a disagreeable object.

The next evening, Mrs. Wendon had a severe headache. Nepenthe remembered having seen the camphor in the cook's room on the table. It was about nine o'clock; the cook had retired early. Nepenthe walked softly up into the room, her cap was hung on a nail at the foot of the bed, on the table was the patch of brown hair, and on the bed lay the cook, fast asleep. A lock of heavy black hair had escaped through her nightcap, and hung in a half curl over her face. The hair was long, fine, black and glossy. The forehead was high and white.

"Why," thought Nepenthe, "does she wear that ugly patch of faded brown hair, when her own is so full and black and her forehead so white and high ?"

She walked softly to the table, took the camphor, and stole out, shuddering as if she had seen a ghost, Mrs.