sofa!" said her uncle, "what does he want with a sofa?-clergymen should not be lazy. I don't like to see a fat parson; one always fancies him eating good dinners, liking good wines, and lolling in an easy chair; pray don't be putting luxurious ideas into the young divine's head." Her brother Henry laughed, and said he had no occasion for a sofa, the room did extremely well, and he was quite satisfied with it. "What a pretty view you have from this window, those hills are beautiful." "Rather barren, Mary, but I mean to plant in that hollow, which will give a more wooded look to my prospect." "Is that your garden?" "Yes, but it is not yet in good cultivation." "Have you much pleasure-ground?" but enough to make it very pleasant, if you are not tired we can walk out." Mr. Conroy and Mary followed him into the shrubbery, there they had a dissertation on shrubs and plants, which had been a favourite study of the uncle's. "You want a good stock from the nursery ground to fill up these gaps, my boy (a mode of addressing the nephew which he continued from habit, although Mary's brother was nearly thirty years of age). "Yes, I shall fill them up next year probably, I have other demands upon my purse just now, which must be

"Not much,

attended to." "I hope, Henry, you don't begin by maintaining all the sick and destitute of your parish, for it is a bad example to set; the parish should look to its own poor; besides, you'll be marrying by and by, and then, believe me, my boy, you'll have enough to do with your money." Henry smiled, and replied that he had no such thought at présent. "Well, we'll talk of this some other time, for I've a good deal to say to you, and I am not so old but I can take an interest in young people's feelings. Eh! Mary," he added, looking very archly. towards his niece, who took no notice that she heard him," Henry, who officiates in your establishment?" "I have an elderly spinster, a Miss Jenny Dobbins, who is willing and able to undertake all the duties of my household; she has been fully engaged this day in making all proper arrangements for your reception: airing rooms, baking cakes, and I believe ornamenting her Sunday cap to make a due impression on my uncle's servant."

This history was scarcely given when Jenny herself appeared, looking very important and happy, as the sole agent on whom devolved the numerous offices of cook, housemaid, housekeeper, &c. &c. She came to announce that tea and coffee were served up.

"Are you not sometimes dull, living so much alone, Henry?”

"Oh no! never dull; I do better than most people living alone. I am very much engaged with my parish duties, and when I come home I have my sermons to make, and my studies to pursue."

"Don't you want some relaxation?

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Surely, Mary, you remember me well enough, to know that exercise, reading, and writing, are quite sufficient for my amusement: give me books, pen, ink, and paper, and I am quite happy, but these I must have. I don't care about society, though perhaps I enjoy it rather more than I used, for I understand it better. I used to feel that it was unprofitable, but I have taken another view of it. I see it as a means of drawing you out of self, and placing you in the way of usefulness; or at least, if this is not true in my case, it is a hope which I may entertain without danger of its doing me much injury."

"Then you are quite happy sitting here, making and drinking your own tea, and passing your long evenings all alone?”

"The first difficulty I obviate, Mary, by choosing coffee in preference, which old Jenny makes and sends in to me; the second suits

very well, for my character inclines me to like solitude and quiet: perhaps a love of ease, and of undisturbed comfort may have something to do with it."

"Two as unlovely qualities as I know of, in a young man, and the sooner my nephew gets rid of them the better; they lead to nothing but selfishness, the worst vice, in my mind, which can lay hold of any one, more especially a Christian minister."

The colour rose slightly on the nephew's cheek, for he was by nature proud and impatient of reproof, but it passed away in a moment, for a stronger feeling in his character was, a disposition to take every thing in life quietly, which added to his affection for his uncle, easily enabled him to bear with good humour the satire or the censure of his remarks. Mary enquired the rules of the house, and how her brother disposed of his hours. She was answered, that as for rules, he had neither at school, nor at college, kept more than absolutely necessary, and in his own house he had avoided making any, save that his hours were usually ten o'clock for reading and prayers, eleven for going to bed, six or seven for rising in the morning, and eight for prayers and breakfast.

About ten o'clock the bell was rung, and

Jenny took her seat with James, while a chapter was read, and a short exposition given in plain and clear language. After they had withdrawn Mr. Conroy expressed his pleasure at seeing his nephew officiating in his own house as the spiritual teacher. "I should be nervous about you next Sunday, if I had not heard you go on so composedly just now." Henry smiled, for he was conscious of possessing very little natural strength of nerve; but he had acquired a calm self-possessed manner which acted upon the generality of observers as the effect of real confidence, and self-command.

The next day was Saturday: Mary was stirring at an early hour, and found her brother up, and out; she followed him into the shrubbery, where he was walking up and down composing his sermon, as he told her. She asked if it took him long to make.

"According to circumstances, sometimes it seems all written in my mind, so that I have only to try and make my pen go as fast as it will; at others I feel perplexed even to select a text, and when I have chosen one, I can make but very little of it; yet occasionally I find that it pleases God to make those sermons most useful, which have cost me most labour and uneasiness."