Pain And Gain

f'l'lie Quiver.] " Vi'lets ftnn vi'lrtsl 'Ave a buncli of vi'lets, sii! On'y h penny a buncli." The litilc ttower vender, wlio luid been stNiidiiiL' pallently !it the corner of the diill Kat London street, ran eazerty forward as lie spoke, and held up hls broken baftkct w tli mi expectant twinkle ín big llirewd black eye. He had lonr ajro Bettled in hia small mlnd that " tlie Parson was a gooi) soit." and tli the keen business instinct that the poor so soon develop, he knew that the biting east wind woolil teil in bis favor. " Vio'ets? All riirht, my lad, IM1 take a buiich. Hmv bas business been getÜag on lately r " "On'y middlin' w.-ll," s;iid the boy, sh ikin; !is head. " Yer see, the other feilen tbey iwell out ihelr bnnches witb ntalkl as 'as 110 ends, :in' it t'lls ajjin yc;r wlicn y;'r tryln' tn si-ll ftrtT " His listener noddcil. He wa a tiill, iraunt young man, wlth a thhi, earnest face wbich aome people were apt to cill rather hard, and h:s nod w:is einphatlc, as tboogli 1 1 i - own experiencé ondorsed tbc Ind's word-i. "It is hiinl llhei NonVi úmee, Toni,1' he ¦greed, " Preclono 'anl ! ' :,id tlie boy hesrtily. " Hut yiM illns lillitiif as '¦ we onjrlit ter lic li(iiic-t, au' as 'ow Imnpsty pa.v In the loDji ril ii If we pi'jr away lon cnongli an' I'ni roin' to glvo it a (air chano';. A'ternoon, sir!" nnd ihnalütrluf his bHukvt, lm trmlged turdily away. Left to himsilf, Wiliinm L'itihton' turned nto one of the glooiny, povertyIt rieken houses, and entering bis own little .-itlinif room, flung bimself down intothedepthsof au oM artn-chair, which nu Calidiiijr li)1 tbc tire. HU ten Btond ready on the labtë, and the kettle was ¦IngltffC iiicril V, bilt be feit tired and mooiy to-nlght, and w is in no hnrry to begin bis solitary meal. " 'Hnncsly i;iys in he loiiff run if we only peg away long enoujflj,"' be repfatöd. ' 'l'lmt littlc chap makf8 a bitter prencher than I. for üpou my word I am bejflntilnjr to dbsftt it." He -rlanccd round the eheeilcps room, w'uii Inbare, drttb-colorpd walltaitoantj funiiturc, uid then thrtut bis bandf deeper into bil pocket und shivered. He was nsually couraireous enoujrb, and tar too busy for scll-analysis, l)iit the deatbofa lellow-workcr wlmm be had loved and honored liad depressed him tod;iv; and if be cbose to waste bis teahour, wby, it was no one's buíiness but lus own. So bc went to thinking. "Let us see what honesty bas done for me. On the one band, tbere ia a snng; country living amidst the blessed ileUU mul laiie-, witb my tather's approbation, elght hundred a year, and the sweetest irl In Christendom for my wlfe. And all to be had by dropping the eterna question of risjlit and wrong, by ' packin a few stiilk- Info the buncb,' 8 'l'oi wou ld say. On tlie other hand, there elaving my lifo out in thls detcstabl East-End, wlth eiglity pouuds a yeur . . Kitty, is that you ?" The sudden questiou dispelled th inoody silenee like a cbeery burst o ruusie, and the young curate Batupam pulled liimself together. " Yes, t is Kitty," said au agrleved little voice, coming trom the other side o; the door, mid sounding somewhere on a levul with the keyhole. Au' l've knockei three times, au' you diu't hear me.1' " I am sure I am very sorry," sak Leighton, Uugliing. He oen'ed the door, and pickinjr up the child lm .-tom upon the threehold, he carried her back In the room. "80 you have come to havt tea witli me, have you little one? How lias the cough been to-day ?" "Pretty well, thank you." she an uwered gravely, and theii.'still held 11 lúa anus, she lo'oked eagerly arouuil the room and back into his face. " Mr. JjMghton, I didn't open the window once." 8be added impressively ; and sliding down upon the ground, she looked up at hiiii with happy glistenintr eyes. " Bless me, yes!1' cried the curar, wlth a sudden recollectlon; " and you were i have ome violcts lf you kept it sluit."' " Violéis all tor my very own self," eried the cliild delighfèdly; and then, wIm-ii lie liad tuken Tom's little biim-li from the vase over her heiid, and had glVen t into hereaarer upstretched handi, she olambrred into the big iirm-chnir. and curled hcrseif up couteutcdly in iis seat. She was a pretty little (hing, bnt Inoked terribly delicate, Lciirhton thought with her eyes preternatiirally briijlit. and too vividly red spots 011 her thiu white cheeks. " W'hat mtikes you like to have the window open? " he asked abruptly. ' It' you lean rijf ht far out and look up,"' explaiued the little gir!, "youcunsee tliu top wiudow the other sldeofthe streef, and they've got, oh! snch a pretty iit of min - iuIh - minette there!" ' A pot of mlgnonette, have they f" sald Leighton k'ndly; luit there was a ittle lron n on his face as he bastad liiinself witU cu'ting the bread. " What loes aunt say to you when you put yonr silly little lif.-ui out ui' the window, just to look at a flower pot?" " She doesn't mind," said the little one, 'she gets astired of the streets as I do, and we both love a bit of country." "You poor little thlng!" Leighton ciime back to the flreside, and taking her on lila kuee, bcran coaxing her to eat. ' You have never seeu the real country, ïave you, Kitty ? " "Only sciaps of it in pota," Mid tli. child qua'ntly. " And how old are you ? '' " Nearly nrvun." It sounded a sud littlu answer enough 11 the ears of this country-bred, italwart 'oung fellow, whose own passionate ove for his nat'velanesaruounted altnoflt o worship. He quite lost the cramprd, ontini'd feeling which London lmd dret given him, and beinu in a broken, imresionable mood to-nij;ht, this sick :hild's eager longinf to look up from ier own home In the basement to the ot of niignonetteiu the opposite window itruck hiin as cunously pathetic. How anguid she was to-night, and what a mere leather-weijrht to hold ns she lay aek in his aruis, with her hot little head lillnwi-il niralnst his shoulder! And eerainly the cough was more frequent than t ue to be. " Kitty, how would you like to jro to he country for a month?" he asked sudlenly. The t)!ity-face crimsoned with dflight. ' Into- ilie- c untry" she stammend. " Now, don'tjiimp up like that," rcnonstruted the curate; "you'll only niake yourself coiij:!i. Yu, I tliink I know a lear little ol I woman in a dear little oíd illage who'd be very ftltd to have you or a time, and tlien you would have to ;et fat and struns aud roay, and come ack and teil me all ubout It." " Won't you come too?1' askcd Kitty wistfully. " No, dear, I cn't." He diil not teil her that to send her avvay woulil neoessitatc loaing his own iard-earned holiday; bnt he went on intcail to talk of the unthine, whii'h ivn? Dgoldi-n and so hot lliat it dld not seein 11 tlie le:ift to belong to the pale, faint ti 11 1 mis whicli came straffglinif down nto the dark, narrow st reets. And then ie talkii'l to her of the field-s whieh were o wide that 110 man jostled iijfainst htl ellow, and where the violets and otlu-r oor diiHty tl iwcrs that little Torn hawkd about the streets grew fresh aud pure and beautifnl; a place, in fact, wherc one bad breatliing linie, and wheie thure vas roiini for evet vbody. "Thut sounds like heaven," said the iltle child dreamily; and ttiat was the malo idea 8he curried away with lier when, a week later, she went down into Hampshire under tlie care of a kindly guard. One other thonjrlit slie took witli her to her new home, One of the curat'i few possessions was an ivory inlnlature of a lirown-haired, sweet faced glrl, and Pke Kitty - who, like :ill solitary children, was tull of untaught fancies - bad fallen into the habit ot' imprintilig a iiiorning and evening kiss upon the imliIlljr, upturned face. "Mr. I.citflitiin's pretty lady,'1 she called her, and one day she asked her friend " why the pretty lady didu't come to live there?"- "I wanted her to, bnt she woiildnl come," Leigliton inswered ffrimly; and t pal with the half-delined notion of meeting the original of the picture, and ot asking her point blank to come and eheer Bp her aunt's lodsrer, that the child starled on that wonderful journey Whlch, a I.eigbton prophesied, was to make her " rosy and strong." # " 80 this is the child, Mrs. Dobbs!'1 "Yes, Miss Olive, that's the child. Deary me! whatever have 1 ilone wlth Mr tWiU's letter He tclls me her name is Kitty Selwyn, and that she never quite got the better of a fever Bhe h-d in the winter, and that the doctor had ordered fresh air to set her up again." " Is lie quite a coniinon child- a street cblld, I mean ? " " Oh no, Miss Olive : she ?peaks quite pretty. and Mr. Wffl cava- that letter must have got tumbled behind the press- that her father was a gentleman who quarreled witb hls f riends. He ran nway and 'listed, and then he marrled a work Kin." "Well, I'mglad Mr. Leigliton has the money to spend in such matters." This conversation was the iirst thing ot which the new arrival was consclons on themornlng following the dar when she had bidden good-bye to her London home. Opening her eyes, sho found that the speakers were a rosy-cheeked old woman and an energetlo looking young lady, who wat frownlng porten tously as she uttered the last words. Por one hnzy moment it almost seemed to the child tliHt her face was familiar, but the impreulon vanislu-d as the lady turned and came toward the bed. " rell, yon small child, so you are awake at last ! " she was bezinning luiskly, when old Mrs. Dobb8 Interpnsed. " And as hungry as ¦ liunter, 111 be bound," crled the pood dame. " Vou just lio still, there's a dear lamb, and ril ret your brealífast. Yo were to tired :uid i-leepv to do aiight but go to bed l.-isi nlgbt. You will wait here, Miss Olive, until I come back.'' " Make haste Uien," responded " Miss Olive" carelessly. " I never have the faintest dea what to sav to children." Slie ülanced again t Kitty as she spoke, and that lance probably infliienced the future of sevcrul üves, for froin an artistic Doint of view it suddenly nccurred to her that the little. grlrl niight be wotth cultivaling. ' I wiili you would slt to me," Fhe bei!n Impuhlrely ; and as Kitty opened her eyes In blank tmasement, she added hastily " I mean I waut you to let me paint your face and put you in a picture." " That will make two Kitties," ?aid the child, witli u laugh. She snt up In bed md clapped her hands, pk-asvd with the idea. ' "ío, not two Kitties," said Miss Olive, wiíh a tmlle. " I sliall paint you as a Boy Cupld." ¦' But I'iu not a boy ; I'tn a girl," obected Kitty; and her visitor laughed outlyht. " You pieeioiia little mortal ! " she exolaltned. " VVell, then, 'TlieEnvoyof jove.' How does that snit you f Envoy ne:ms sonu'tlung sent." 'Sent to you by Love ? " echoed tlie chid. " Why, I was sent to you by Mr. jelgbton," and the next moment slie was vomlrring wliy the face of this younj; ady shoulü have turned a deep burning red. But these few words quite sertled the [Oettioo :is to whethvr Miss Olive Fenroy vould chooee to interest hertelf in the iüin; liltle Londoner. That veiy fitst lay she took lier out with her for a long. iapiy roornlng in the beautiful springijtliled lields; and thls firat ram')le was he forurunner of many anoüier they ook lojietlier, Olive on root, and her litIe charge on the bioad back of a sédate old pony. The dellght and wondenuent with which the little cblld welcomed the commonest every-dnv thing in country life woke a keener perception of their eauty in the more jided eyes of her ömpamon. When Ivitty, slipptng from the old i idny'i 1) ick, would point to llickerin;.' talla of light wliioh, slitnting through the rees. feil softly upon the nioss below, nd wllsperin; Ihat these were the kÍ9sea i f the anjtels, would run to press her i aby lips upon their brightness, Olive 'enroy thought it only a pretty conceit i he cliild would outjrrow in time; but ¦ when, after ïistcni dit to the carolliiiK of lie blrÜBi Kitty knelt reverently in the i ug waviiifTgrass, and tlmnked the Christ i wlio niudc their music so lovely, Olive 1 r&sped dimly something of the deeper ieaninf of these sights and sounds to 1 vhich she had been accutonied since ' liililhuod. " Mr. Leighton #jri tliis," and "Mr. eighton thinks that," forined tlie staple : i Kmy's talk, and her innocent condences served to bring Misa Fenroy's i ?ver very vividlj' before lier. For he vas her lover, she was sure of that, tougb ic was six lon months since she lad lira ni of liini; tur Will was too I tauncli to change. Had anyone tried to i ecall in so man y words the suspense a'id ie worry, and tiitally the decisión of I at h ii tu ín ii , Olive would have tiercely I eseuti-d it; but this little child was too 'oung to undersuiíwl, and the girl let her liatter as she woul I. Kitty liad told her i f " the pretty lady" in the in issive ffilt ' rame whoui Mr. Lelgkton had tried to i rinr luto lus solltary rooms, bnt who ' wouldn't come," Hnd Instead of i ng the söorn with which the little i ¦utor lilled her story, Olive had only i tiased the flnshed, indignant face. : So he still kept that vory minature! low well slie retneinbered the birlhilay : - why, t va tlirce years aj;o by now - i vhen slie hul íven it to hint. The old quiro, who had long set hls heart on the tarrlage of bis only boy with the adopt i d daughter who was about the only perii who bad any intluence over the I terloua Old man, had met them at the oor as tln-y camc in togpther f rom tlieir i unble in the lanen, and Uien atid tliere i litd (letiuitrly promised the lad the tainy I1tId(F HSIOOD al lieshould beqnulifled 0 hold it. Will's answer was the fore Unrrer ol' the storm which wasafterwards descend upon his devoled head. " ( shall be delighteri if it can only be ïadc possible," he liad answered ; " bilt am sorely afrald there is a greater cul) or workers in town.'1 And 1 ist autuinn be bad UmM to bis eototoa. The mtocratic old Sfpiire had ireatened and ra ved to no purpo.'e, and )livc (n lliosi' iiys she washis rotn ic 1 vite; had pleaded and coaxed in vain. I líate going away, but it gevnis to me ight, and I mean to do it,'1 lie had ansverièd, and he had kppt to bis point. 'hen the Squire played i- trump card. " Yoiir pour mother expected me to laml you over her own little property wlien you entered the Churcli," he told lisson with oniniou8quietne'8, "butl will 1 it, air! not a penny of It will you see uitil I dlel If yru choose to go and rind ynülttilt into a sbadow, of course 'on can do It, but you dou't have the inoney, and you dou't have Olive." llmv often darlnS these last few months the girl had rejrctted her on share in the matter no oné would over know. Shc had been piqued by bis apparent iiulillerences to her wishes, aud had been overruled by the Squire's inipetuosity, but In the quiei, loucly winter that folio wed she bad grown to realizc not only her own love, but also some of the motives wbich had placed a Btnmjrer in tlii' pleiisant country rectory, and the younu rokster in the midst of the London turamlL Jlut it was Kitty herself wbo linally won the girl into listening to the dictates of her own heart rat!:er than to the Squire'i Invectives, aud it hajipened in this WlM Kitty's month In the country wa9 almost ovpr wheu one glorlous fUDTtllng the two set out for a long walk across the sun-lhhterf Itelds, In quest of a certain lilack-bird's nest which rumor had located in a lovely little nook whlch bore the Dame of the Fairy'a Dell. " You don't w.iut the pony today, do vmi pet y " sho aeked us they atarted ; " there are ft number of etiles whlch poor old Dobbin could not get over, and yon are so strong now that It will not tire you." " Yei, I am strong and rosy," quoted Kllty, gleefully; und lnde#d b# looked tlie embodiment of health. The pink ginaham frock left the dinipleil arms bare, and both they and the brijrlit, 1 au jf Iing face whicli was framed by theold snnbonnet were browned by exposure. She ran along by Olive's side, swinging the big basket she liad brought in searcb of llowera, and talking merrily. " Do you know," she s.iid, as they left the lields and clambered down into the dell, " wlien I first aw you I thougbtyou was soniiibody ehe." " Did you Kitty? Who? Mind that stone, dear. " " I thouglit you was potnebody else, and then you was yoursdf," answered the ehild in lier curious old-fashioned way, and then he broke In to a Jittle cry of raptnre. "Oh! Miss Olive, Un't it beautiful!" Vs the girl bastily stopped, tlie bluckbird, upou whose uest they had come unawares, broke into sonjr. They made a pretty picture just at that moment - so pretty, indeed, that others than Letfthton mljrht Iniveeared to paze. The little cliild was standing on hifjher ground thao Olive, with one cbnbby hand olutcliin; the bi; wicker basket, and the other holding up one smnll llnger to enforee a reverent silence. Some steps helow lier stood Olive, with a liiiinbled, wisttul expression on lier The baby thiinks which had been rendered by her little companion wlien first she bad llstened to those aon((l of tlie birds seemed to find tin echo in aome words that Will had spoken years ago, wlien as children tliey bad played tojfether in this Bame Fairv's Dell. "I sliould like all the other poor people in big town3 to come and listen to the birds and whnt their xdihj mean" he bad said In liis bnyisli w:iys; "and il' they Bsn't come, I'd llke tn go and teil them." Olive'a eyes filled with tears. Yes, Wills dreain liad come true, nul she who had been hls fellow-dreamer, had been the one to try and hold hiin back. She turned to the clnld, who was watchIngher intently. "We must be going " she bejian, wlien she w:is interrupted by a brijíht, exultant laugh. " I know who you are! I know 'xactly ivho you are!'1 cried Kitty excitedly. ' You re Mr. Leighton's pretty lady, the ady he wanted, and - oh! you wouldn't :onn I" The sorrowful break in the voice as she I poke the laat words weut to Olive's leart. She lifted the child off the b.mk, ind begau ktHinjt het soft cheeks. Drop)iii}f the basket, Kitty flung botli her .varm little irina around the other's IPfk' " You ure crying," sho annonnced tiiiiinphautly. " I see you. Vou waut to come home witli ine." " J don't thiuk - - Perlitips Mr. Leiglitoti does not want me nou." " But lie doe. Oh, do come. Please do come." She waited 11 moment, and Uien slie added ílowly, witli a toncb of very like pathos In the baby voice, " He 3 so lonely. It leels bad to be lonel}', you know. It hurto. It was being lonely that mude me go out into the cold to look up at the ftowere, bccause they seemed ne&rer my daddy. And Mr. Lelghton is lonely, and lie wants you." The browu eyea were very mist)', but the look 11 pon her face was still the one Wtilcb little Kitty had recngnized as that of ' the pretty lüdy," aud she ventured to give a soft kis to tlie lips whlcii were so near her own. " You do want to come home wlth me, don't you? " she said, perguasively. There wa3 a paute, and then Olive amswered her. There was only tlie sunlit eilence and the pleading chili to listen ; but I thiuk that had the tremulous leaves then changed to a waiting audience, the wordt would hive been uttered just as bravely and lovingly. " Ye9, I do want to comí1," she faid. Peop'.e argued in after days to the wh.ys and wherefores of the Squire'ssuddi'ii cliMime in liis beliavior lo his son. That the suminer t'ouml Olive and VVill marrted suiely pointed to tlie f.tct, gossiped tlie wiseaerea, that Bíter all the old man had a soft corner in his heart tor his only chili!, ainl that lic had been secretly rojoiced to lind he could not turn him f ruin a set purpose. And so the matter wi8 discussed over sundry t:a-tables; but not one of these clever people thought of counectinu; the happilv-emled love-itory with a little jiict ure which hangs in aceituin East End house, mul which the owner prizes only lewthan n ivoryminiuture which is alo in bil pOMenloil. It is the picture of a little child, with her blue eye3 ruil of sunshine and beautj', aml her red muuth bicakin into siniles, and it hears this fanciful title: "Tlie Envoy of Love."