SCHOOL DAYS AT ST. MARY'8.

rankled in her mind, and she felt very sorry that to
do right she must appear ill-natured. Two or three
times in the course of the afternoon she was very much
tried, but she smiled when they called her tiresome, and
did her best to give her teachers as little trouble as
possible. She had her music lesson too, and this great
pleasure made up for a deal that was disagreeable, and
she had no need while taking it to be more particular
than usual, for she was always attentive in this; but
she thought to herself there was no credit due to her
for being so, as it was no trouble at all.
 Later in the afternoon she was sent to practise in
Mrs. Palmer's study. This room was at some distance
from the school-room, and Mrs. Palmer, she knew,
was out; what was to hinder her from practising the
new overture that Dr. Mellor had just given her?
Nothing, except that she knew this portion of her
daily hour's practice ought to be devoted to scales and
exercises. Being fond of music these were not so irk-
some to Lydia as to many girls, and she took pleasure in
them nearly always; but to-day there was this charm-
ing new piece, and she would be doubly careful with
the exercises to-morrow, and Mrs. Palmer would not
hear. But then came the words of last night's text
with wonderful force to her mind: Not with eye-
service, as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ
doing the will of God from the heart;" and the exercises
were replaced on the piano, and she began at once and
practised her half hour with an approving conscience.
 Lydia disliked arithmetic as much as she loved music,
and therefore she was rather in the habit of scheming
how to get through the hour on Tuesdays and Fridays,
when Mr. Simpson tried to initiate them into the mys-
teries of figures. She was dull, certainly, and Mr.
Simpson was sometimes impatient, and did not wait to