A STUDY IN GRAY

BY MRS. C. READE, AUTHOR OF ROSE AND RUE,' ETC.

IV. BROADER AND EVER BROADER.

MARY BAKER, Cousin Mary, was one of those bland, cheerful, good young women whom everybody likes, and who trouble nobody. Blessed with a high colour, a pair of mild hazel eyes, straight darkbrown hair, which was never out of order, tolerable features, and a stout squarely-built person, terminating in substantial hands and feet, Miss Baker held herself to be quite comely enough for all ordinary purposes; such as getting a husband and making friends, of whom she already possessed a large selection.

And yet, if you looked well into that red and white and brown countenance, you could detect the taint of cruelty beneath its decorous smiles and mild benignity; that is, if you were a physiognomist, and sceptical of the worth of appearances.

'I never liked Mary,' said Ben one day to David, when they were lads,' after I heard her say, Come, let me kill you," "to a little gray moth. It seemed to make all her goodness worse than other people's badness, and I never see her without thinking of it.'

And David was silent. He, too, had noticed that Mary had a curious habit of inflicting needless pain on helpless creatures, although she was the most woful of cowards in the presence of the larger animals, who were in some wise able to take care of themselves.

I do not know that this instinct of hers ever led to any more serious consequences than the diminution of the insect kingdom and the occasional anguish of a kitten or a puppy, but the black speck which betrays rottenness is seldom very large, though always to be depended on.

Of the precise effect produced by her appearance in the Garstays' household, it would be difficult to speak accurately. Perhaps David sat in the parlour a little less and worked at his organ more, and perhaps Mrs. Garstays was a little stiffer in her manner to Alma, perceiving such small defects as she had hitherto been able to detect in that young lady's character and conduct with greater clearness in the steady brilliance of Mary's perfectness; but no great change was perceptible, and the neutral-tinted days fled by much in their usual fashion. Except for David. To him they yielded no common sweetness. Alone with the two girls on the river—he was a fair oarsman and fond of rowing; in the woods, gathering late orTHIRD SERIES, VOL. V. F.S. VOL. XXV.

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