spoke, uttering little ejaculations of surprise and amusement at what was said; if there was a place vacant in the carriage, she drove out.  If there was not, she stopped at home.  She amused herself by going about in the village, talking to the old women and the children, who half loved and half despised her for being so very unimportant, and for having nothing she could give away.  But I do not think the little lady ever had a thought except of gratitude for her blessings, and admiration for the robustness and efficiency of her relations.  She claimed nothing from life and expected nothing.  It seemed a little frail and vanquished existence, and there was not an atom of what is called proper pride about her; but it was fine, for all that!  An infinite sweetness looked out of her eyes; she suffered a good deal, but never complained.  She was glad to live, found the world a beautiful and interesting place, and never quarrelled with her slender share of its more potent pleasures.  And she will slip silently out of life some day in her attic room; and be strangely mourned and missed.  I do not consider that a failure in life, and I am not sure that it is not something much more like a triumph.  I know that as I watched her one evening knitting in the corner, following what was said with intense enjoyment, uttering her little bird-like cries, I thought how few of the things that could afflict me had power to wound her, and how little she had to fear.  I do not think she wanted to take flight, but yet I am sure she had no dread of death; and when she goes thitherward, leaving the little tired and withered frame behind, it will be just as when the crested lark springs up from the dust of the roadway, and wings his way into the heart of the dewy upland.

XVII

SIMPLICITY

If we are to avoid the dark onset of fear, we must at all costs simplify life, because the more complicated and intricate our life is, and the more we multiply our defences, the more gates and posterns there are by which the enemy can creep upon us.  Property, comforts, habits, conveniences, these are the vantage-grounds from which fears can organise their invasions.  The more that we need excitement, distraction, diversion, the more helpless we become without them.  All this is very clearly recognised and stated in the Gospel.  Our Saviour does not seem to regard the abandonment of wealth as a necessary condition of the Christian life, but He does very distinctly say that rich men are beset with great difficulties owing to their wealth, and He indicates that a man who trusts complacently in his possessions is tempted into a disastrous security.  He speaks of laying up treasure in heaven as opposed to the treasures which men store up on earth; and He points out that whenever things are put aside unused, in order that the owner may comfort himself by the thought that they are there if he wants them, decay and corruption begin at once to undermine