Her proposition was, if the means could be raised, to found a home for the destitute, and furnish employment both for them and others, who with a little help could provide one for themselves. Amelia was one of those practical, persevering spirits who never put hand to the plough and look back, and consequently she never failed in any undertaking, which fact inspired confidence in those whom die consulted, that they might safely rely on her success in any achievement of this kind.
Not every one she consulted, however, had the means at his command to effect so much towards the consummation of the desired object as Mr. Livingston, of which circumstance he was fully aware. First, he had a powerful helpmeet in his wife, who was always equal to any emergency pressed upon her; next came her mother, whose long life of disinterested efforts in benevolent channels gave her a wide spread influence she could wield to great advantage in furthering this enterprise; and then he knew of another whose highest happiness it would be to witness its accomplishment, Mrs. Carleton, over whose placid features the benign radiance of a peace which comes not of this world shed a diviner beauty; and last though not least, came Milly, whose meek, quiet offices in ministering to a family of unfortunate ones, he could foresee would invest her with a sort of unconscious dignity that would develop the latent powers of her soul. With an artist's quick perception lie had often, when observing her, taken in the whole range of what her thoughts, feelings and aspirations might be, just as, when solving a diffi-
