MILLIE' VICTORY.
 "Cc Then, Aunt Millicent, will you please not speak
so of mamma ? I cannot bear it."
 It is my duty, Millicent, to warn you of your
mother's faults. Nothing you can say can turn me
from my duty."
 Time passed slowly in Briony Cottage. It seemed
weeks of dreary days to Millie before the first Sun-
day.
 Branton Church was a simple building, made
beautiful by age. Ivy draped the tower, and wove
chequered traceries across the windows, making solemn
twilight within, where time had laid light fingers on
fretted rail, and chancel screen.
 Here at least was peace and beauty, and Millie
felt that one day in the week she would have a few
hours' happiness.
 They were early, and she watched the people
enter, her eyes lingering with much interest on a
family that sat in the seat opposite Miss Conway's. A
lady with four children-three pretty girls, and a lad
as tall as his mother-like her, too, with blue eyes
and dark curly hair.
 Millie's eyes often wandered to their pew during
service. The bright, happy faces of the children
made her long to know them, and the lady's gentle
face reminded her of her own mother.
 On the way home she summoned courage to ask
Miss Conway who they were.
 "If you had been attending as you ought, you
would not have seen them. I shall not gratify your
curiosity," was her aunt's answer.
 "t Miss Millie, will you come and help me lay the
cloth for dinner?" asked Betty, the old servant, as
they reached home. "I'll tell you who they were,
my dear," she whispered, when Miss Conway had