it have been so had her heart not been wrung by Hubert's conduct? Had he been different,-the hero of her fancy, that she proudly wished to make him,— would she have felt so weary and disgusted with the ordinary life in which she had been brought up from childhood? Would she not rather have contentedly followed on in the usual routine, only now and then, perhaps, satirising the follies she yet mixed in, and satisfied with the proud consciousness of her own superior intellect? Possibly-probably-yes. Without that heart grief, the world would not have been such a blank, and she would not have learned to look on it and act in it as she had done,―feel the real worth and business of life, and follow it. Nay, the misery, the long repentance her own faults had brought that too was good. Without it-without that constant shadow of the past-should she have fought so vigorously against the evils of her nature; or bent so submissively to the will of Him, Who orders all things for the ultimate good of His faithful children; or read so plainly the duty of bearing cheerfully that individual cross which He appoints, striving day by day to lighten its burden, by becoming more and more like Him Who first bore it for us, and hourly more fitted for that heaven which is our Home? Her conscience answered, No; and as she thought of all that she had been permitted to do for the good of her fellow mortals, as well as of the advance she trusted she had made in the better performance of her own individual duties,-her cheerful content, her bright hopes, and the active life she was still leading and hoped to lead, so long as that life should be further lent to her, she turned again to the verses she had just read, and repeated with a full heart, "Thy treasured hopes and raptures high, Nor grieve the bliss should quickly fly "Thou shalt have joy in sadness soon- "Thus souls, by nature pitched too high, "To practise there the soothing lay Truly she felt so at that moment, and thankful indeed for what had been removed; for she saw how the gifts had in a measure been, as she believed, the consequence of that which had been taken away. She would not have exchanged her feelings now for anything; no, not even the perfect fulfilment of all those bright visions and unreal imaginings which filled her head and heart just before Beatrice's marriage, some thirty years ago. She felt she was now tuned to more perfect harmony with her position, better able to sustain her part in the Church's chorus of praise and service; and only prayed and hoped her present blessings might not tempt her to be negligent, or to be less careful in watching over herself and her actions. To-day-the first of May-the beautiful new church which she had built and endowed in the fen land, was to be consecrated, and Willingham Courtenay inducted into it as its Priest; and a month later he, with her own little Margaret Neville for his helpmate, were to be settled in the parsonage hard by; for Mr. Procter had, a short time back, given up his living, owing to some family circumstances calling him to one of the colonies, where he had been left property, and Edward Grey had after all become Rector of Willingham, and a near neighbour to Maude and his aged mother. Had she not blessings and social ties very dear? was she not happy? and fervently she prayed for grace to keep steadily on in the pathway affliction had first pointed out, and ever to possess such a spirit as would enable her truly to petition, JOSEPH MASTERS AND CO., PRINTERS, ALDERSGATE STREET, LONDON. HENRIETTA'S WISH. A Tale. By the author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." Second Edition, 5s. 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