give thee peace now and for ever.

Amen!"

And when she raised her bent head, and gazed out through her tears, she found herself alone in the room.

CHAPTER VIII.

MAURICE was beginning to reap the fruit of his long, patient industry, his laborious and often ignominious toil. His intuitive power of mechanical analysis soon made itself felt, and he was found far too valuable a workman to be allowed to expend his energies on mere manual labour. Nothing gave him greater pleasure than to be set to work on an entirely new piece of machinery, and whenever a difficulty arose, his inventive mind set to work to overcome it. He was pronounced the finest "finishing hand" in the factory. All the nice little bits of workmanship were entrusted to "Gentleman Verschoyle." When once the technical difficulties, and the tricks of handicraft were learnt, Sandy and all the other first-class workmen found them

selves surpassed-easily distanced too, Maurice saw with some surprise. Any one would have thought that his former life had been spent in wielding the hammer, instead of poring over Latin and Greek, and the mysteries of high mathematics. Of course his education had helped him; ay, and a great deal more than his boating and his fencing, which had only strengthened his muscle; while the other had strengthened his brain, and directed and guided his will-the true source of all power, physical as well as moral. The evening-class had been satisfactorily started. Sandy profited well by his instructions. At first, from his pupils' ignorance of the very alphabet of knowledge, Maurice found his self-imposed task irksome enough. To spend the evening after a hard day's toil in drumming rudiments into the heads of ignorant adults is not the most agreeable of recreations. Old William's words often came whispering themselves in Maurice's ears, "The spirit of love, the spirit of love," and the peaceful tenderness of the old man's face would rise up before his eyes. Then he would turn

back to the slow brains floundering through the opening propositions of Euclid with renewed interest. Sandy's example had been followed by several of the other workmen. One by one they came dropping in more or less sheepishly, till at length Maurice numbered eight pupils. Then the question arose, where was the class to be held ? Eight brawny sons of toil were quite as much as Maurice's little parlour would contain, and he had no wish to limit his numbers. Maurice

turned the subject well over in his mind, and at length resolved to lay the case before the members of his class, and invite them to join with him in paying the rent of a room large enough to hold twenty or thirty men. His first thought had been to write and ask Aunt Dora to provide him with the necessary sum. "He should not mind asking her a bit." It was not a personal want. But then, as Maurice pondered more and more over the subject, he came to the conclusion that by fostering habits of honest independence and self-respect, he should really be doing more towards improving the condition of the work

ing-men than by his class-teaching.

Surely

a man who would deny himself part of his weekly wages for the sake of mental improvement, would not be likely to spend the rest of his time at the "Jolly Dogs." And then he would have the unspeakable satisfaction of feeling that he had a share and a right in the 66 concern." He would not merely be accepting "Gentleman Verschoyle's" kindness-he would be helping on the continuation of that kindness to others as well as to himself, and accepting sufferings as proof of his appreciation of its value. This is what the better class of men felt when Maurice set the matter before them. There was only one

dissentient voice.

"It was too much to expect of workingmen," he said. He was one of Maurice's earliest supporters. He had not the slightest objection to gratuitously receiving Maurice's time and trouble, but when it came to a personal sacrifice, he "forsook him and fled." There are many such people in the world, and they are not only to be found amongst the "labouring classes." Maurice, with a