in, as for the world I have lost. Had I those about me with whom my
earlier years were passed, the lonely situation would trouble me
slightly."

She uttered these words with a sorrowful voice, and the moisture
gathering in her eyes, gave them additional brightness. The youth, after
some commonplace remark upon the vast difference between moral and
physical privations, went on--

"Perhaps, Miss Munro, with a true knowledge of all the conditions of
life, there may be thought little philosophy in the tears we shed at
such privations. The fortune that is unavoidable, however, I have always
found the more deplorable for that very reason. I shall have to watch
well, that I too be not surprised with regrets of a like nature with
your own, since I find myself constantly recurring, in thought, to a
world which perhaps I shall have little more to do with."

Rising from her seat, and leaving the room as she spoke, with a smile of
studied gayety upon her countenance, full also of earnestness and a
significance of manner that awakened surprise in the person addressed,
the maiden replied--

"Let me suggest, sir, that you observe well the world you are in; and do
not forget, in recurring to that which you leave, that, while deploring
the loss of friends in the one, you may be unconscious of the enemies
which surround you in the other. Perhaps, sir, you will find my
philosophy in this particular the most useful, if not the most
agreeable."

Wondering at her language, which, though of general remark, and fairly