THR BEAUTIFUL SOUL. 155

“Pray let me hear what it is, Miss Bennet,
if you think I can help you at all in getting rid
of it.”

“Why, you see, sir, it is about my niece Kate,
the little girl that went out just as you came in.
She has lived with me ever since her mother
died, and that was when she was only two years
old, so that I may well say I feel to her as if she
was my own. Well, sir, she is a good child in
the main, and a pretty child too, and that last it
is that makes my trial.”

Mr. Lovett smiled, and said, ‘‘ Why, Miss
Bennet, you do not regret that she is pretty,
do you?”

‘Oh, no, sir; I have always felt very grateful
to Him who made her for all His good gifts to
her; and I have tried in my poor. way, sir, to
teach her that she was to be thankful to Him for
good looks as well as for every other pleasant
thing, and that this, like every other gift of God,
was to be devoted to His service.”

Lucy, who had been listening very attentively,
did: not understand how good looks could be
devoted to the service of God, and she turned