Tea over and the tray removed, she again summoned us to the fire;

we sat one on each side of her, and now a conversation followed

between her and Helen, which it was indeed a privilege to be

Miss Temple had always something of serenity in her air, of state

in her mien, of refined propriety in her language, which precluded

deviation into the ardent, the excited, the eager: something which

chastened the pleasure of those who looked on her and listened to her,

by a controlling sense of awe; and such was my feeling now: but as