Sexton came next day to see him, having to bring some further conveniences. He found

him, at twelve, smoking fiercely amid his rugs. Although he had never heard that hermits smoked, he now thought tobacco (cut cavendish) emitted the odour of sanctity.

"Dear brother," said the Reverend John Joyce, "will you cause this letter to be delivered to Miss Laura Bronté, at Madame Simonet's seminary? It must be given her secretly, or they may persecute her. She is, I hope, one

of the elect; and she is thrown among the wicked."

Sexton ventured to suggest that if Mr. Joyce himself delivered the note to Mrs. Dyer, she could easily cause the note to reach Miss Bronté. Besides, Mrs. Dyer would be spiritually benefited by a visit from him.

Why did the Reverend John Joyce turn hermit, and inhabit the Palace?

Because he had discovered that Louisa Saint Osyth liked white water-lilies.

M

"Literulae scriptae manent."

ISS LAURA, having written her letter

that Sunday, wanted to post it. She hoped to go out and do so without being noticed, since usually most of the servants at the Seminary went to church on Sunday mornings. The post-office was not far; but she much disliked the idea of going into the street dressed in a short frock. Laura called herself sixteen; looked twelve; was four-and-twenty. She was going downstairs with intent to carry out her design, when she encountered on the stairs a “foolish fat scullion" of the household, who

had not been allowed to go to church. Laura's vanity overcame her instinct of danger; and she knew the scullion to be simply a fool; so she gave her sixpence, saying,

"Post this letter for me, before the people return from church."

Eliza-whom her fellow-servants preferred to call Elizer-grinned acquiescence. She took the letter, meaning to run off with it at once. But at that moment the cook's bell rang for her, and without a thought she threw the letter on the table in the hall, and it is probable she has never thought of it since.

Now the first person to notice this letter was Amy Chatterton, quick of eye as well as tongue, as the girls came through the hall from church. It was a delicate-looking epistle, in a pink envelope, sealed with blue wax. It struck her at once by whom it was written. The parlour boarder's disgrace had caused so much debating in the dormitories, that several pupils had fallen into disgrace themselves; and you

ments.

may be sure Amy Chatterton was one of them. Madame was rather ingenious in her punishShe applied the doctrine of Hahnemann-Similia similibus curantur. Amy was punished for chattering at midnight by having to leave her place at the dinner-table when the meat was removed, and to stand on a stool while her schoolfellows ate pudding, and to read Madame D'Aunoy's story of Princess Babille, the lady who when once she began to talk could not leave off till it rained. As she lived in a country where it rained very seldom, the Princess became rather a nuisance to her family. Imagine Amy's distress while the pudding rapidly vanished, and the Princess Babille's adventures became funnier every

moment.

When Amy's eye caught the letter, she adroitly put her muff on it, and contrived to take it upstairs with her. She did it on the impulse of the moment, without thinking why; but all letters were contraband at the seminary, none

being sent or received, parental correspondence excepted, without special permission and examination. Little Amy, when she had reached the cloak-room, where the girls took off their walking attire, furtively glanced at the letter, but before she could read the superscription, which was in a windy autograph, Grace Greenland had noticed her, and took the letter from her hand, and read the address.

1

1

"Where did you get this, you tiny minx?” asked Grace, who, although of the type concerning which Byron writes

“Yet, after all, 'twould puzzle to say where

It would not spoil some separate charm to pare,"

had yet considerable humour, and a fine vocabulary of girlish slang. Indeed, she had among her books The Slang Dictionary, which Madame Simonet would certainly have confiscated had she known it.

Amy Chatterton told her; told her also her conjecture as to the author.

"Of course," said Grace. "It's Miss Slate