THE VILLAGE GIRL. 169 



Kate had counted her eighteenth summer when the sudden 

 death of her father first acquainted her with real grief. Her 

 only living relatives were the Leightons ; and when her cousin 

 Harry hurried to share her sorrow, he bore with him a request 

 from his mother that Kate should hereafter take up her abode 



with them in the city of . The orphan gladly accepted 



this proffered kindness ; and looking forward with the buoy- 

 ancy of youth to the pleasures of a city life, left her home 

 with little regret. 



Mrs. Leighton, who had so kindly offered Kate a home, 

 (which, by the way she did not actually need, as her father's 

 pretty cottage was now her own,) was one of those persons 

 who are " content to dwell in decencies forever," and who find, 

 in the respect of society, ample reward for all sacrifices of 

 feeling and affection. Possessing much practical good sense, 

 she was yet incapable of enlarged or original views. She 

 saw every thing through the distorted medium of worldly 

 opinion, and she had fixed certain theories in her own mind, 

 to which she wished all within her influence to agree. There 

 was no softness, no tenderness about her, and she could make 

 no distinction between a violation of the rules of etiquette 

 and a breach of the moral law. She might be described, in a 

 few words, as one of those cast-iron women, whom time may 

 rust and corrode, but can never soften. 



This pattern lady had five daughters, who had been moulded 

 in her own image, mentally as well as bodily. They looked 

 like her, walked like her, talked like her and thought like her ; 



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