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There was a heavy shower the night succeeding the picnic and the

s are wont to

be after a fall of rain They were always early risers at the

far Anna, who had slept but little, arose

earlier than usual and, leaning froather a bunch of roses fresh with the glittering raindrops,

she felt her spirits grow lighter and wondered at her discorieved that she should have

harbored a feeling of bitterness toward Lucy Harcourt, as not to

blah to covet

"He knew her first," she said, "and if he has since been pleased with

iance, and it is

right She is a pretty creature, but strangely unsuited, I fear, to be

his wife," and then, as she reo with her when

next she visited the poor, she said: "I will take her to see the Widow Hobbs That will give her some idea

of the duties which will devolve upon her as a rector's wife I can go

directly there from Prospect Hill, where, I suppose, I must call with

Aunt Meredith"

Annaonly fronanimous desire to fit Lucy for her work, if, indeed, she was to

be Arthur's wife--that in taking theit around her rival, she was doing a most amiable deed,

when down in her inmost heart, where the tenized wish to see how the little dainty girl would shrink

from the miserable abode, and recoil from the touch of the little,

dirty hands which were sure to be laid upon her dress if the children