and shook him as a terrier shakes a rat, while the air

'No, thank you; lying still will set me to rights. It is only that these coughs leave a pain--nothing to mind.'

He settled himself on the sofa, not without threatenings of a return of cough, and Violet arranged the cushions, concerned at his trying to thank her. After a silence, he began to breathe more easily, and said,

'Will you read me the rest of that?'

She gave him the book to find the place, and then read--

'The world might call them blighted in their early bloom, and deprived of all that life was bestowed for; but how different is the inner view, and how glorious the thought of the numbers of quiet, commonplace sufferers in homely life, like my currant and gooseberry bushes, who have found their frost has preserved their dewdrops to be diamonds for ever. If this is too fanciful, don't read it, but I go rambling on as the notions come into my head, and if you only get a laugh at my dreamings, they will have been of some use to you.'

'How beautiful!' said Violet; 'how you must have liked receiving such letters!'

'Yes; the greatest blank in the day is post time.'

He held out his hand for the book, and found another passage for her.