was covered with the lurid clouds, between which and the vivid green earth below there seemed to come a purple atmosphere, making the very threatening beautiful; and by-and-by the house was wrapped in sheets of rain, shutting out sky, and sea, and inland view; till, of a sudden, the storm was gone by, and the heavy rain-drops, glistened in the sun as they hung on leaf and grass, and the “little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west,” and there was a pleasant sound of running waters all abroad.

“Oh! if papa would but buy this house!” exclaimed Elizabeth, after one such storm, which she had watched silently from the very beginning of the “little cloud no bigger than a man’s hand.”

“Mamma would never like it, I am afraid,” said Mary.  “She would call our delicious gushes of air draughts, and think we should catch cold.”

“Jemima would be on our side.  But how long Mrs. Denbigh is!  I hope she was near enough to the post-office when the rain came on!”

Ruth had gone to “the shop” in the little village, about half-a-mile distant, where all letters were left till fetched.  She only expected one, but that one was to tell her of Leonard.  She, however, received two; the unexpected one was from Mr. Bradshaw, and the news it contained was, if possible, a greater surprise than the letter itself.  Mr. Bradshaw informed her that he planned arriving by dinner-time the following Saturday at Eagle’s Crag; and more, that he intended bringing Mr. Donne and one or two other gentlemen with him, to spend the Sunday there!  The letter went on to give every possible direction regarding the household preparations.  The dinner-hour was fixed to be at six; but, of course, Ruth and the girls would have dined long before.  The (professional) cook would arrive the day before, laden with all the provisions that could not be obtained on the spot.  Ruth was to engage a waiter from the inn, and this it was that detained her so long.  While she sat in the little parlour, awaiting the coming of the landlady, she could not help wondering why Mr. Bradshaw was bringing this strange gentleman to spend two days at Abermouth, and thus giving himself so much trouble and fuss of preparation.

There were so many small reasons that went to make up the large one which had convinced Mr. Bradshaw of the desirableness of this step, that it was not likely that Ruth should guess at one-half of them.  In the first place, Miss Benson, in the pride and fulness of her heart, had told Mrs. Bradshaw what her brother had told her; how he meant to preach upon the Christian view of the duties involved in political rights; and as, of course, Mrs. Bradshaw had told Mr. Bradshaw, he began to dislike the idea of attending chapel on that Sunday at all; for he had an uncomfortable idea that by the Christian standard—­that divine test of the true and pure—­bribery would not be altogether approved of; and yet he was tacitly coming round to the understanding that “packets”