friend, and Mrs. Wilton and Grandy both appeared delighted to see
him: they conversed together some time, until tea was ready, when
the conversation became more general, and our little friends were
occasionally required to give an opinion.

Before I proceed any farther, I should like to make you acquainted
with Charles Dorning and Dora Leslie. Perhaps if I give you a slight
sketch of their personal appearance, you could contrive to form a
tolerably correct estimate of their characters from the
conversations in which they both figured to such advantage at the
evening meetings held in the drawing-room of Mr. Wilton's hospitable
mansion.

Charles Dorning--No! We ought to describe the lady first. Dora
Leslie was fourteen years of age; a gentle, quiet girl, with a meek
yet intelligent countenance, which spoke of sorrow far beyond her
years; and a decided expression of placidity, which none but the
people of God wear, was stamped upon her delicate features and
glowing in her mild blue eye. She had been in early childhood
encompassed by the heavy clouds of worldly sorrow: she had wept over
the tomb of both her parents; but now that she could think calmly of
her afflictions, she could kiss the rod which chastened her, and
praise God for thus testifying his exceeding love towards a sinful
child. Her trials had indeed been sanctified to her; they had
changed, but not saddened, her heart; for she was at the time of her
visit to the Wiltons a cheerful, happy girl, delighting in the
innocent amusements suitable to her age, though ever ready to turn
all events to the advantage of her fellow-creatures, and the glory
of her God. But I am telling you more than I intended. I was only to
describe her person, and here I am giving a full, true, and