Amy Le Feuvre

“ Greta shook her head.
"Becca says married people are the worst off people in all the world. She says everybody's troubles begin when they marry."
Rufus laughed scoffingly.
"Becca is an old maid. They all talk like that. Ask her one day if anybody has asked her to marry them, and see what she says."
"Becca says life is an effort when you aren't married, but when you are, it's a battle!" ”

“ Warren shook her head.
And Greta hastened to say, "Aunt Catherine, you know I love to be with you, so don't talk of keeping me from gaiety."
"How is it," Rufus said one day, as they walked across the moor together, "that duty and right is such a strong principle with you? Do you put it all down to your early training? I don't believe your own wants or wishes are ever consulted. I am longing to hear you say, 'I like, I want, I shall have,' but I listen in vain for the words."
"I don't think I ever do want anything different to what I have," Greta replied, laughing. ”

“ Rufus said, "that there were only two sorts of people in the world: those born to be helped, and those born to help them. I have often thought of it since, and wondered in which class I am ranked."
The girl looked at him with half-parted lips, then gazed away over the moor with her most dreamy air.
"That saying was one I was accustomed to hear when quite a tiny child," she said, slowly; "I was brought up to believe that I was to go through life as a protector and helper of others. I have never lost some of my childish aspirations. ”

“ Greta did not notice his correction, and went on: "I suppose there are hardly any people who only live to please themselves, are there, Mr. Tracy?"
"A good many, I think. And after all, why should we not? If we are single men and women with no family ties, who is there to think of except ourselves?"
"I thought God told us in the Bible we weren't to do it," said Greta a little shyly. "Becca is always saying it to me—'For none of us liveth to himself.'"
"Oh, well, if we gauged our life by the Bible, I suppose the world would be a different place," said Rufus, lightly. "Is that your motto, Greta? ”

“ Isn't this a glorious moor?"
He smiled. "It is too dreary for me. Rather a change from the London streets, isn't it?"
"It is a very pleasant change. I am not going to pose as a martyr, though Lady Chatterton did regard me in that light, I think."
"Do you always put the claims of others before your own?" asked Rufus, lightly. "I wonder if you are one of the people born to help others?" ”

“ Rufus said, an earnest, far-away look coming into his eyes. "I have to thank that little child for putting before me higher aims and motives than those of merely accumulating wealth and making a position in the world for myself." ”

“ It was not a luxuriously furnished apartment, nor yet a very tidy one, but Greta was charmed with the novelty of a bachelor's den. The smell of tobacco and the row of pipes on the mantelpiece puzzled her sorely.
"Why do you smoke?" she asked, presently, as perched on a horse-hair sofa, she watched the stout landlady bring in the tea-tray. "Does it warm your mouth? My mouth never feels cold."
"It keeps me in a good temper," was the laughing reply.
"Would it keep me from feeling cross when the girls tease me at school?"
Her questions ceased when she came to the tea-table. ”

“ The wind has no pity for weakness, and with a wild shriek of fiendish delight, it bore down upon the frail little body. Seizing the umbrella in its clutches, it whirled it into the air, whilst it made such a furious onslaught on the little waterproof cloak, that the owner of it staggered, lost her balance, and fell headlong to the ground, a bag of books discarding its contents in all directions. ”

“ Rufus said to Greta one Saturday afternoon as he lay in the depths of a bluebell wood and watched her careering round the bushes after a butterfly, "that we have mutually benefited and improved each other by our 'unequal friendship,' as Becca terms it. I have made you younger, and you have made me older. ”

“ Tracy? And we will go to the woods and take our tea with us. I shall feel quite funny walking to school alone again."
"Will you miss me, Greta?"
She had looked up at him with a serious smile. "I shall not always have you, shall I? When I get bigger and go away from here, I shall be accustomed to walk alone. Becca says it is only the weak sickly trees that want props, a healthy one can grow alone. She says I must go through life without props. Do you think you're a kind of prop, Mr. Tracy? If you are, I think props are very nice, but when I am grown-up I suppose I shan't want you." ”

“ Do you think your mother would let you come to tea with me to-morrow night?"
Greta's eyes sparkled at the thought, then fell at the remembrance of "Becca."
"I'll try to let Becca make me come, but she—she doesn't like you—she says young men think they are the lords of creation, but they are slaves of self-will. I'll tell you what she says to-morrow morning."
Rebecca was won over, and punctually at five o'clock the next evening, the little maiden stood on the doorstep opposite her own, and enquired in a trembling voice for Mr. Rufus Tracy. ”

“ Warren, with whom I am staying now. But my home is now supposed to be with Lady Chatterton."
"Your vocation in life is not that to which you used to look forward," said Rufus, with a smile.
"I sometimes wish it were," was the quiet response. "I have a longing to be up and doing. And yet I suppose we are never placed in any sphere where we cannot be a help to some one."
"The maxims of the redoubtable Becca are still with you!"
Greta's face was full of grave sweetness as she answered, "Rebecca took most of her maxims from the oldest book in the world, and taught me to do the same." ”

“ She is getting old, and says I make the house brighter. She has had a lonely life, for my uncle is so busy with politics that he is hardly ever with her; so it would be cruel to leave her. You see I have learned to grumble; but your face brought back that sweet Derbyshire moor. Have you left it for long?"
"I don't know," was the blunt reply.
"I am so glad to see you in town," Greta went on a little eagerly. "I have wished so much to meet you. Can you come to tea with us to-morrow afternoon? My aunt is having a few friends, and she will be delighted to see you." ”

“ Clay. Rufus stooped and gently detached one of the little faded bluebells. He knew the dell in the wood that they came from, and pictured a lonely little figure in a black frock stealing away under the thickly hanging trees, to sob out her desolation amongst her favorite flowers.
"Poor little mite, fatherless and motherless, and only that she-dragon with a face and heart of stone, to turn to for sympathy or comfort. ”

“ Becca says it's what I shall have to learn. She says jography is knowing the places in the world, and history is knowing the people in the world, and sums is knowing how to do business in the world, and music is knowing how to amuse people in the world. ”

“ I fancy your training is leading you that way."
"No, I'm always wanting to please myself, but I do try to help Becca dust our room and wash up the things instead of playing with Toodles first. When I grow up I shall find it quite easy to live for others, shan't I? It's only when you want to play or have a run, instead of sitting still that it's so difficult; I s'pose all children can't help being naughty sometimes, but of course grown-up people never are."
Rufus flicked off some heads of dandelions with his cane without replying. ”

“ The little maiden stole furtive glances up at her new friend through her long eyelashes, wondering if he were displeased with her. She had hard work to keep pace with his rapid strides, and presently heaved a deep sigh.
"I would like my umbrella again, please!"
"Eh? What? Ah, I see! I am going too fast for you; but I have plenty of time, so take your own pace. How long have you been living opposite to me?"
"We came here a week yesterday from London. Mrs. Stock, my schoolmistress, used to be mother's governess. She lets me come to her school without paying much. ”

“ She shook her head.
"My Aunt Catherine lives very quietly, and does not go into society—she is too much of an invalid."
Conversation turned into other channels, but all the time she was speaking Rufus was strangely conscious that he had met her before. Where had he seen those wistful dreamy eyes, and those resolute yet delicately sensitive curves about lips and chin? He left Lady Chatterton's that afternoon, perplexed and puzzled, yet deeply interested in her niece. ”

“ She put pins and stones in his coffee and tea; she pushed him downstairs to break his leg; she poured a can of cold water over him when he wasn't looking, but it was no good. And then she remembered it was God who made people ill, so she prayed to Him, and God sent the son some scarlet fever. Then he was very ill, and the doctor said he must die, so the sprite flew to his mother, and she came, and the son put his arms round her neck, and said, 'Mother, I'll be a clergyman now,' and then God made him better, and he went home and lived happily ever after. ”

“ She told him that if he would not take up the profession which was open to him, he must not expect her to keep him at home in idleness, and she said she would have nothing more to do with him if he refused to carry out her wishes. ”

“ Prosperity brings many friends, and then it is one least cares about them."
Greta looked pained at the bitterness of' tone.
"She is your mother," she said, softly; and seeing it was a painful subject she turned to talk of other things.
A short time after, Rufus was walking homeward with knitted brows and determined, closed lips. Yet a softened smile came over his face as he entered his own gate, and he muttered under his breath, "My little Greta! I will win her and no other!"
CHAPTER V HIS STORY FINISHED
IT was not long before Rufus called upon Mrs. ”