Just at this moment she thought of the contrast, between all the fine things which that young lady was to have, and her own destitution.  But her disposition was such as not to cause her to think hard of others who had plenty while she was poor.  She was contented to receive her pay from the wealthy, for her daily needle work.  She felt that what they had, was not taken from her, and if she could gain in her little way by receiving her just earnings from the general prosperity of others, she would not complain.  And as the thought of the increased pay came into her mind, which she was to receive that day, she brightened up, shook the bonnet, pulled out the ribbons and made it look as tidy as possible, thinking to herself that after buying some fuel she might possibly buy a bit of ribbon and make it look a little more spruce, when she got her money.

Lettice now put on her bonnet, and Myra’s shawl, and looking into the little three-penny glass which hung on the wall she thought she might look quite tidy after all.  The young lady for whom she made the linen lived about twenty miles from town, but she had come in about this time, and was to set off home at nine o’clock that very morning.  The linen was to have been sent in the night before, but Lettice had found it impossible to finish it.  This was why she was obliged to start so early in the morning.  She now goes to the bed to tell Myra about the fire, and that she had borrowed her shawl, but Myra was sound asleep, so she did not disturb her, but stepped lightly over the floor and down stairs, for it was getting late and she must be gone.  Read the next story and you will be deeply interested in the result.

LETTICE AND CATHERINE,

Or the unexpected meeting.

I must tell you who were Lettice and Myra.  They were the daughters of a clergyman, who held the little vicarage of Castle Rising.  But misfortune, which sometimes meets the wise and good, reduced the family to poor circumstances.  After the parents’ decease, Lettice and Myra located in London, for the purpose of doing needlework for a living.

We said in the last story, that Lettice had entered the street and was on her way with the work she had finished for the young lady.  It was a cold morning, the snow blew, and the street was slippery.  She could scarcely stand—­her face was cold, and her hands so numbed that she could scarcely hold the parcel she carried.  The snow beat upon her poor bonnet, but she comforted herself with the idea that she might be supposed to have a better bonnet at home.  She cheerfully trudged along, and at last entered Grosvenor Square, where the lamps were just dying away before the splendid houses, while the wind rushed down the Park colder than ever.  A few boys were about the only people yet to be seen about, and they laughed at her as she held her bonnet down with one hand, to prevent its giving way before the wind, while she carried her bundle and kept her shawl from flying up with the other.