ABODE

when the perverse weapon— swerving from her control— inflicted a deeper

stab than usual; but still silent, diligent, absorbed, womanly.

Graham was at that time a handsome, faithless-looking youth of sixteen. I

say faithless-looking, not because he was really of a very perfidious disposi-

tion, but because the epithet strikes me as proper to describe the fair, Celtic

(not Saxon) character of his good looks; his waved light auburn hair, his

supple symmetry, his smile frequent, and destitute neither of fascination nor

of subtlety (in no bad sense). A spoiled, whimsical boy he was in those

days.

"Mother," he said, after eyeing the little figure before him in silence for

some time, and when the temporary absence of Mr. Home from the room

relieved him from the half-laughing bashfulness, which was all he knew of

timidity—– "Mother, I see a young lady in the present society to whom I