174 THE VILLAGE GIRL. 



" Look, sweet one, and confirm my hopes." 



Her dark eyes flashed for an instant from beneath her long 

 lashes as her glance fell upon her own portrait, and then her 

 head sunk upon her cousin's shoulder. 



Kate went back to her village home, but not alone. There 

 were cold looks and stern remonstrances to be encountered, 

 but these were trifles. Love had awakened in her a more 

 enlightened sense of enjoyment, and during after years of 

 peaceful happiness, when, as the honored wife of Harry 

 Leigh ton, she won the love of all who knew her, she often 

 recurred to her sorrowful discipline as the beginning of all 

 her usefulness and all her bliss. 



