When you see a quiet person like Milly making so little stir that you almost forget her existence, do not for a moment imagine she is the unobserving person you might judge her to be, or that her life flows so smoothly on she has no care or anxiety to disturb her. Those instincts and affections implanted for the fulfilment of the high trusts imposed on the family relation are by no means stifled in her bosom, and upon her success in guiding these through normal channels to other objects and interests, in a great measure depends her happiness.
On the same day an animated discussion was held in another room among the other members of the family, of which Milly was the unconscious subject.
That year had witnessed one of those financial crises that occasionally sweep over the land like a tornado, wrecking the millionaire of yesterday and carrying dismay and starvation into thousands of hamlets but lately the abodes of happiness and comfort, as the laborers are thus thrown out of employment and their little all swallowed up in the general crash. The sad spectacles constantly presented of large families dependent on their daily toil for support, with no prospect before them but beggary or vice to meet the rigors of the coming winter, aroused Amelia Crawford, whose whole life was now devoted to the work of reclaiming the intemperate and vicious, to make some organized effort towards alleviating their distress.
For this purpose she appealed to a number of individuals noted for their beneficence, whose fortunes escaped unharmed, among whom was Mr. Livingston.
