"Oh! there is quite time enough; it is very bad for children to be put too forward."

Mr. Lawrence was more successful with his sister Harriet; she entered into his views of the propriety of some education for Helen, and, between the two, Maria was persuaded to send her to a day school. Her brother and his family left the Grange the day after her consent had been obtained, and Helen was sent to school for the first time the Monday following. The school selected was at Radbrooke; the girls were almost all day scholars, the mistress highly respectable, and the distance convenient, little more than a quarter of a mile; it was suitable in every respect.

Helen had no idea what school would be like, and at first did not greatly object to going there. Miss Lawrence took care not to let her discover that the new spelling book she was to take with her, was word for word the same as the one out of which she had herself attempted to teach her, an attempt which Helen had effectually frustrated, by tearing out half the leaves, and thrusting the mutilated book up the chimney. On this eventful Monday, equipped in a new frock, her smartly bound book in a silk bag hanging from her arm, she set forth to school. The governess felt some compassion for the ignorant little spoilt child, and wishing also to oblige Miss Lawrence, was not disposed to be

strict with her; but she had much to contend with, for Helen was not only ignorant, but hopelessly idle also.

Maria thought the house very dull without her, and after the first day or two, when the novelty had worn off, Helen herself began to object vehemently to being sent to school at all; it was no wonder she did not like it, for besides the unwonted restraint, she was so much more ignorant than most children of her age, that she could not help feeling rather like a dunce, and at the end of the first week, she persuaded Miss Lawrence, regardless of her sister's remonstrances, to send her no more.

Not long after this educational failure, a message came one morning from Mrs. Lester, requesting that Helen might be sent home. immediately, her father was dangerously ill, and was anxious to see her. She was sent of course, and great was her discontent when she found herself again in her humble home; her father's state was so dangerous that Mrs. Lester had little time to attend to her; she fared the same as her brother and sister, but it was altogether very different from what she was accustomed to, and she was so unhappy and peevish, that she was a trouble to herself as well as to all around her, while her sister Jane was as useful as so young a child could be, and really a great help and comfort to her mother.

After some days

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Mr. Lester was pronounced out of danger, and his poor overworked wife was as glad to get rid of her troublesome child as Miss Lawrence was anxious to have her back again.

So Helen returned to the Grange, taking with her a supreme distaste for her home, and what might be thought almost to equalise the good and evil of her short stay there, a feeling of vexation at her own ignorance. She had experienced much satisfaction in showing off her fine clothes to her sister, but had been by no means so well pleased with the discovery that Jane could read well, and sew very neatly, accomplishments upon which she had been inclined to plume herself when she discovered Helen's deficiencies, testifying considerable surprise that her elder sister, who was brought up like a lady, should be so backward in her learning. Miss Lawrence was not a little astonished when Helen told her she wished to go to school again, and be taught to read, and then she should be able to amuse herself with a story-book when she was tired of her doll. She was therefore again sent to school, and being really a clever child and at length wishing to learn, she improved rapidly, and in the next two years made up for the time she had previously lost. Miss Lawrence was charmed with her progress, and determined upon sending her to a school of much higher pretensions, where, out of respect for her patroness,

she was admitted, and allowed to go as a day scholar.

Miss Baker's establishment, known as Belvoir House, was one of the first schools in the county; it was situated half way between the Grange and Stenham, and, standing in its own grounds, had quite the air of a private residence.

The scholars, as well as the school, were of a higher description than those Helen had been used to at Radbrooke, and some of the least amiable among them took pleasure in mortifying her by allusions to her low birth. More than once she came home with complaints of their behaviour, such as that Miss Birchley had asked her the price of sugar, or Miss Morriss had told her she would recommend the grocer in Silver Street. Still, notwithstanding these drawbacks, the change was on the whole satisfactory to her. She was now taught music, drawing, French, and other accomplishments, much, in fact, that was not likely to be useful to her, unless she were intended to go out as a governess, but Miss Lawrence did not look beyond the present time, she liked to see what Helen could do, and when her brother's family came to pay their annual visit, she delighted in showing off her attainments. Helen was, by nature, cleverer than either Bessy or Mary Lawrence, and though their advantages were greater, with a regular governess and London masters, the superiority

was as often on her side as on theirs. That any comparison should be made between them and Helen greatly irritated their mother; as to the girls themselves, nothing could be more hurtful to their tempers and dispositions.

As they grew up, there was not nearly so much difficulty as formerly in keeping them apart in the mornings; the governess on the one hand, and the school on the other, brought that easily about; as to Arthur, he was now at Eton, and rarely came to the Grange for more than a day or two, and for so short a time it mattered little that the old play alliance was renewed between Heleu and him. In the evening, however, Helen could not be excluded from the drawing-room, and her presence there was a nightly trial of patience to Mrs. Edmund Lawrence, and occasioned constant disagreements between the sisters-in-law, so that, by degrees, Mrs. Lawrence learned rather to dread than desire a visit which would otherwise have given her so much pleasure.

Mr. Lawrence saw with pain the mischievous effects of his sister's folly on his children, and, indeed, on the general peace of the family; for himself, he was satisfied with his own girls, and cared little whether Helen knew more or less than they did, and, but for the illjudged manner in which Miss Lawrence brought her forward, his wife might probably have felt the same