her folded hands and upward face was not despairing, even though that
of the poor widow, when her barrel of meal was gone, and her cruse of
oil spent, would hardly have been sadder.

"I am sure we have wasted nothing, and cheated nobody;--surely God
will help us."

"I know He will, my child."

And the two sisters, elder and younger, kissed one another, cried a
little, and then sat down to consider what was to be done.

Ascott must be told how things were with them. Hitherto they had not
troubled him much with their affairs: indeed, he was so little at
home. And after some private consultation, both Johanna and Hilary
decided that it was wisest to let the lad come and go as he liked;
not attempting--as he once indignantly expressed it--"to tie him to
their apron strings." For instinctively these maiden ladies felt that
with men, and, above all, young men, the only way to bind the
wandering heart was to leave it free, except by trying their utmost
that home should be always a pleasant home.

It was touching to see their efforts, when Ascott came in of
evenings, to enliven for his sake the dull parlor at No. 15. How
Johanna put away her mending, and Selina ceased to grumble, and
Hilary began her lively chat, that never failed to brighten and amuse
the household. Her nephew even sometimes acknowledged that wherever
he went, he met nobody so "clever" as Aunt Hilary.

So, presuming upon her influence with him, on this night, after the