163 THE VILLAGE GIRL. 



to sit down before a piano to discover the sympathy between 

 ivory keys and black-headed notes. But she had those quick 

 perceptions which make a person wiser than mere book-learn- 

 ing ; and if she did not know much about feminine employments, 

 she had delicate womanly instincts, and an inherent sense of 

 order and neatness ; while her voice was perfect melody, and 

 her untaught songs, like the carol of the forest-bird, seemed 

 to gush forth from the overflowing of a joyous and thankful 

 heart. 



Poor Kate ! she had lost her mother when she was too young 

 to feel the bereavement ; and the fond love of an indulgent 

 father had been her only guide. No wonder she knew so little 

 of the decorum of young-ladyism. She had always dwelt too 

 in a little country village, where her father's moderate fortune 

 was comparative wealth ; and happy in her own joyous im- 

 pulses, she had never known a want or felt a sorrow. 



Once, and once only, had Kate been made sensible of her 

 own defects. Her cousin, Harry Leighton had once spent 

 some weeks with her father, and during his visit, she felt most 

 painfully the difference between her own manners and those 

 of the polished and refined youth. Yet he was so kind, so 

 gentle, and so good, that although she was daily mortified by 

 some ebullition of her own irrepressible gayety, yet she could 

 not but regret the moment of his departure, and cherish a 

 tender recollection of him long after she fancied he had 

 forgotten her. 



