been no payment, and so--"

"Yes, you dear good thing, you thought it your duty to go and work
for your poor little stepmother and her children!"

"What else was my education good for, which has been a costly thing
to poor father? And then the old lady was affronted for good, and
never took any more notice of me, nor answered my letters. I did not
even know she was dead, till I heard from Mr. Bell, who had learnt it
from his lawyers!"

"It was quite right of her. Dear Magdalen, I am so glad," said Mrs.
Best, crossing over to kiss her; for the first stiffness had worn
off, and they were together again, as had been the solicitor's
daughter and the chemist's daughter, who went to the same school till
Magdalen had been sent away to be finished in Germany.

"Dear Sophy, I wish you had the good fortune, too!"

"Oh! my galleons are coming when George has prospered a little more
in Queensland, and comes to fetch me. Sophia and he say they shall
fight for me," said Mrs. Best, who had been bravely presiding over a
high-school boarding-house ever since her husband, a railway
engineer, had been killed by an accident, and left her with two
children to bring up. "Dear children, they are very good to me."

"I am sure you have been goodness itself to us," said Magdalen, "in
taking the care of these poor little ones when their mother died. I
don't know how to be thankful enough to you and for all the blessings
we have had! And that this should have come just now, especially