MILLIE'S VICTORY.
 BY AMY KEY.



 CHAPTER I.
 l HE sound of the carriage-wheels died away.
 Silence more sad and desolate for the bustle
 of the last hour fell upon the house and
 the bright country garden.
 Millie Churton crept from the window where she
had watched for the last wave of her mother's hand,
to bury her head among the sofa cushions, in passionate
grief.
 It was her first trouble. An only child, her father
a merchant captain, nearly always absent from home,
her mother had been all in all, her only friend
and companion. Now, Millie had to learn to live
without her; she had gone abroad to her husband, who
had been taken ill in an Australian port, and was too
weak to come home. So Mrs. Churton had gone to
him, leaving her little daughter in the charge of a dear
friend, Mrs. La Serre.
 "Millie." A gentle hand was laid on the girl's
bent head.
 "Please leave me alone, Mrs. La Serre. I don't
want anything."
 "I want you, dear. Come and help me make
some tarts. Uncle John is coming to tea, and I want
 B