164 THERE IS NO HURRY.

his niece, than by the deep melancholy which sad-
dened her voice and weighed down her spirits.
He was evidently anxious to mention something
which made him joyous and happy; and when
the doctor entered the library with him, he said,
‘* And may not Mary come in also?” Mary
did come in; and her gentle presence subdued
her uncle’s spirits. ‘I had meant to tell the
intended change in my family only to you, bro-
ther John ; but it has occurred to me we were
all wrong about my niece; they said at home,
‘Do not invite my cousin, she is too fine, too
gay to come to a country wedding; she would
not like it;’ but I think, surrounded as she is
by luxuries, that the fresh air of Repton, the
fresh flowers, fresh fields, and fresh smiles of
her cousins would do my niece good, great good,
and we shal] be quite gay in our own homely way
—the gaiety that upsprings from hearts grate-
ful to the Almighty for his goodness. The fact
is, that in about three weeks my Mary is to be
married to our rector’s eldest son! In three
weeks. As he is only his father’s curate, they
could not have afforded to marry for five or six
years, if I had not been able to tell down a hand-
some sum for Mary’s fortune; it was a proud
thing to be able to make a good child happy
by care in time. ‘Care in time,’ that’s my
stronghold! How glad we were to look back
and think, that while we educated them proper-
ly, we denied ourselves to perform our duty to