it might be in the very intimate intercourse existing between pets and their masters, much would be done toward reconciling outsiders to that very exclusive relation, and making pets an interest instead of a nuisance to the public in general, as is now too often their fate.

THE MISTAKE HULDAH MADE.

TWO GIRLS worked together in a large factory, where, from the early morning until evening, they stood side by side at a machine, engaged in the manufacture of one of the useful articles whose sale fills the purses of merchants, whose making gives employment to hundreds of men and

women.

These two, of whom my story tells, when they left the factory at night, went to the same boarding-house, where they shared the one room, as they had done from little children; for, although they were not sisters, they had been brought up by the same care, under the same control.

When they were small children, under ten years of age, one had been picked up, homeless and ragged, in the street, one taken from the cruelties of a drunken mother, and the doors of an asylum for such little ones had opened to receive them. Here they had received an education; had been fed and clothed; had been taught a useful trade, and, finally, had been put into the factory already mentioned, a respectable boarding-house found for them, and a neat outfit of clothing provided for their entrance into independent life.

Summed up briefly, this was the history of Huldah Lewis and Fannie Cresswell. But upon the hearts and dispositions, upon the very faces of the girls, the life had left traces distinctly different in each. Huldah Lewis, the child of the drunken mother, who had long filled a pauper's grave, was a slender girl, of medium height, with dark eyes and hair, a clear, dark complexion, an air of refinement, and a neat taste in dress. Not pretty, she was attractive, having read and thought to advantage, and possessing that indescribable quality we call tact that taught her when to speak and when to be silent, what topics would be acceptable, what distasteful.

Her experience had hardened her nature in every fibre, giving her perfect health, though she was delicate in appearance, and a cold, calculating heart. United to these was the resolute determination to rise above the station she filled, and overcome the circumstances that had given her a place among the working-classes.

"If I live, I will be something better than a factoryhand," she would say.

She felt no emotion of gratitude toward those who had rescued her from filth, cruelty, and beggary, but a bitter resentment against her lot in having been cast into a charitable institute.

Fannie Cresswell, on the contrary, with a face of real beauty, of a modest, refined character, was humble by nature, and full of thankfulness for every blessing granted her.

The matron who presided over the institute was to Fannie a guardian-angel, who had lifted her from hunger, cold and misery, had given her motherly care through childhood, and words of kindness never forgotten. The institute was a home where she had learned a trade that gave her an honest means of livelihood, enabled her to dress comfortably, and live without the grinding cares of poverty.

Different as they were in disposition, the girls were very much attached to each other, and seldom had any differ

ences that were not adjusted by a kiss or caress. So, one evening, in their own room, they exchanged confidences. "Walter Mainwaring has had an offer to go to San Francisco, as foreman of the new factory to be started there," said Huldah. "I heard them talking about it at luncheon, and he was in the counting-house when we left."

"I wonder if he will go ?"

Any close observer would have noticed that Fannie's gentle face was paler than usual, and that there was a suspicious mistiness in her soft-blue eyes.

But Huldah was too much absorbed in her own thoughts to heed the silent signs.

"Of course he will go," she said, decidedly. "It will double his pay at once, and give him a step toward a partnership. I have told him before now that a man of his ability ought to stand at the head of such an establishment as ours."

"What does he say?"

"That his ambition is of an another type." "Then perhaps he will not go ?".

"He is not an idiot," said Huldah, sharply, "to refuse such an opening."

"Perhaps not !"

As Fannie spoke the servant came to the door to say Mr. Mainwaring wished to see Miss Lewis, and Huldah rose at once to put some trifling addition to her dress. She felt-and Fannie, with a sudden heart-sinking, felt, also— that there was a significance in Mr. Mainwaring's asking for only one of the girls he had visited together for over a year.

The gentleman meantime, for he was a gentleman in every instinct and action, was slowly facing up and down the small boarding-house parlor with an air of impatience not common upon his features.

A man past thirty, with a grave face capable of lighting up with fun or pleasure to great animation, he carried about him an air of command that scarcely fitted his present position. He was the superintendent of the rocm where Huldah and Fannie worked, drawing a very moderate salary, yet standing high in the esteem of his employers.

For over a year he had seen a great deal of Huldah and Fannie, calling upon them often, acting frequently as their escort to social gatherings amongst their friends, and evidently finding pleasure in their society.

It had puzzled their companions to know which of the girls they might tease about Mr. Mainwaring's evident preference, for he seemed equally the friend of both. But of late Huldah knew that there were words and looks for her alone, and that the heart of Walter Mainwaring was turning to her.

As she entered the parlor, one glance at her lover's face told her the crisis of her life had come. Her heart beat high, for the prospect was a pleasant one.

Walter Mainwaring was not a man to trifle where his mind was once made up, and in a few frank, manly words he told Huldah he loved her, and asked her to be his wife.

"I cannot offer you wealth or position, Huldah," he said; "but I can promise you a home, rest from your present life of labor, and all that a loving heart can give you of happiness.”

"When do you go to California ?" Huldah asked, not yet answering the momentous question. "I am not going to California." "Not going !"

"Wright will go in my place. He has a large family, and is fully competent to fill the position. I can better afford to wait for another opening."

"But you will not fill your old place after such an offer ?"

"Yes. My salary is not large, but I have saved enough to start a quiet home, Huldah, and we are young enough to wait for fortune."

The girl's face darkened.

"I will never be a poor man's wife," she said, decidedly. "All my life I have borne the curse of poverty, of work and care. When I marry, it will be to better my position, not to struggle along as the wife of a poor man. Had you accepted the offer made you this morning, I would have been your wife. As it is, I decline your offer."

"Will it not better your position, Huldah, to have a home where love presides-to know that there is a strong arm between you and the rough world ?"

He began to think there was nothing so lovely in a maiden's face as tender blue eyes that drooped under too long a gaze; as soft, fleeting flushes that came and went when he spoke.

In a few weeks after his decided rejection, he awoke to the fact that where he had given Huldah admiration, he was giving Fanny a deeper, truer love than had ever before touched his heart.

He had fancied Huldah's hands, so rapid and expert in their daily work, would keep home the neatest, brightest spot on earth. He never asked himself whether Fannie was a deft worker or not. He had thought Huldah, whose dress was always so neat and tasteful upon such limited means, would economize a small salary, and make a little do its full work. He never thought of Fannie's

In Huldah he had sought a good helpmate, a sharer of life's changes, a housekeeper and pleasant companion, meaning to fill faithfully and tenderly all a husband's duties.

But in Fannie he saw the heart his own craved to meet,

But on his way home the man made no moan. In his heart he said:

"Thank Heaven I did not tell her! She is as hard as iron, and as cold. And I fancied that she loved me !"

To outward appearance there was no change in the superintendent's manners after this interview. He still made his rounds in the great room, often stopping for a few friendly words where Huldah and Fannie were standing, and Huldah thonght :

"He thinks I will relent."

But Walter noted only the pity in Fannie's blue eyes, the silent sympathy she gave him in her subdued tone and gentle smile. He never guessed the secret she carried in her tender heart, but he grew to watch for her look and listen for her voice.

As before, he often accompanied the girls in their homeward walk, and paid them the usual attentions, and both thought he was striving to gain a different answer to a repetition of his suit.

Believing this, Huldah was haughtily reserved, showing him, as she had never done before, the worst side of her character, giving voice to many a hard worldly doctrine she had kept silently in her heart, and proving in every interview the cold, calculating disposition she had successfully concealed when hoping to win a better position as the wife of a rising man.

And Fannie, knowing how hopeless was any plan to soften Huldah's heart, in her pity for the true love thrown back upon itself, was gentle and winning, as she had never dared to be in former days.

Loving Huldah, she thought Walter would never seek other love, and her tender heart sorrowed for the disappointment she could sympathize with. For, when she knew Walter Mainwaring was her friend's suitor, she knew, too, that he had won a love he had not sought-had filled her heart only to turn in ignorance from its affection.

Even Huldah never guessed the secret maiden modesty hid so carefully, and Fanny thought it would die with her. But when the glamour was torn from Walter Mainwaring's heart with such a deliberate cruelty, his eyes turned with new insight upon the fair face he had passed over before.

He wondered how he had ever fancied Huldah's the most attractive, not realizing how one had sought to win him, the other keeping in the background.

thought of the suitability or prudence of the choice.

He loved her! He realized fully that, if she gave him cold, measured words of rejection, it would blight his life as Huldah's words had no power to do.

He loved her! And he came to her, not as he came to Huldab, almost secure in his hope, but fearful, timid, and yet so tender, that the girl's heart seemed breaking with the weight of unexpected happiness.

He told her he had mistaken his own heart in seeking Huldah for his wife, but in his eyes, in his voice, in the clasp of his hand, Fannie read the truth that he made no mistake now. She asked no questions; only letting the golden head rest on his breast, she whispered: "I have always loved you."

There was nothing unmaidenly now in the confession, only the natural-spoken words to answer the words to which she listened.

"You love me-ycu will be my wife !" he said, scarcely yet believing in his own happiness.

"Yes," she said, softly; "I will try to be a good wife, Walter, and make you happy."

"Darling, you can never make me happier than you have done in those words.”

But after the little tender, whispered speeches were over, and they sat hand-in-hand on the sofa, quietly talking, Walter said :

"I want to tell you, Fannie, why I would not go to California."

She looked up questioningly.

"I have made an improvement upon the machine by which you and I, little one, have won our bread, and it was before the examining board at the Patent Office when the offer came. I knew Wright needed the position, and that I could afford to let it pass. If my patent was accepted, it would place me above the necessity of work for the future; if it was rejected, I could still fill my old position, and not want; so I declined the offer. Are you sorry, Fannie ?"

"No," she said, frankly; "I never thought of it at all. I would be quite willing to work as I do now, Walter, if it would help you either in your plans or in "—and she blushed shyly-" our home."

"You will not need to work, Fannie," he said, gravely and kindly, "for my patent has been accepted, and I am already a rich man. Two States have bought the right to manufacture already, and, if I did no more with it, these alone would make me wealthy."

There was a very quiet wedding when Walter and Fannie were married, for they were not anxious to make any display; but the bridal reception, after a trip to Europe, was in a superb New York mansion, where wealth and taste were lavished to make a perfect home.

Looking from the window of her room in a boardinghouse, Huldah-Miss Lewis still-sees rolling past the splendid carriage of Mrs. Mainwaring, with its happy nest of sturdy boys and rosy girls, five in all, out for an airing;