regularly, but after a time it became very convenient to detain
her at home, for at least two days in every week, and this wrung
from her almost the only tears she had shed since the morning,
when, of her own accord, she had gone into the kitchen to perform
a servant's duties.

Possessing naturally a fondness for books, and feeling ambitious
to keep up with her class, she at last conceived the idea of
studying at home; and many a night, long after her aunt and
cousins were asleep, she sat up alone, poring over her books,
sometimes by the dim light of a lamp, and again by the light of
the full moon, whose rays seemed to fall around her more brightly
than elsewhere. It was on one of these occasions, when tracing
upon her map the boundary lines of India, that her thoughts
reverted to her uncle Nathaniel, whose name she seldom heard, and
of whom she had never but once spoken. Then in the presence of her
aunt and cousins she had wondered why he did not answer her
mother's letter.

"Because he has nothing to write, I presume," said Eugenia, who
would not trust her mother to reply.

And Dora, wholly unsuspecting, never dreamed of the five hundred
dollars sent over for her benefit, and which was spent long ago--
though not for her--never dreamed of the letter which Eugenia had
written in reply, thanking her uncle again and again for his
generous gift, which she said "was very acceptable, for _ma_
was rather poor, and it would aid her materially in providing for
the wants of Dora," who was represented as being "a queer, old-
fashioned child, possessing but little affection for any one and