never occurred to her that the salvation of which she had been told
was to influence her life now, or awaken any love from _her_ in
response to the great love which had been shown toward her. Not daring
to reply, she glanced listlessly over the hymn on the card, but took
up none of its meaning. She had never been conscious of any heavy
burden of sin to be "laid on Jesus." Petted and praised at home for
her beauty and lively winning ways, her faults overlooked and her good
qualities exaggerated, she had no idea of the evil that lay
undeveloped in her nature, shutting out from her heart the love of the
meek and lowly Jesus. She could scarcely feel her need of strength for
a warfare on which she had never entered; and Lucy's words, spoken
out of the realizing experience she had already had, were to her
incomprehensible.

She was a good deal relieved when the tea-bell rang, and Lucy's two
brothers, Fred and Harry, with her tall cousin Alick Steele, joined
them as they obeyed the summons to the cool, pleasant dining-room,
where Alick's mother, Mr. Raymond's sister, who had superintended his
family since Mrs. Raymond's death, was already seated at the
tea-table. Her quiet, gentle face, in the plain widow's cap, greeted
them with a smile, brightening with a mother's pride and pleasure as
she glanced towards her son Alick, just now spending a brief holiday
at Ashleigh on the completion of his medical studies. He was a
handsome high-spirited youth, affectionate, candid, and full of
energy, though as yet his mother grieved at his carelessness as to the
"better part" which she longed to see him choose. He had always spent
his vacations at Ashleigh, and was such a favourite that his visits
were looked forward to as the pleasantest events of the year.

"Girls," said Alick, "I saw such quantities of strawberries this