er cousin toward the spot, where the "Cleopatra"
rose and fell on the crest of waves racing before Libeccio, she
suddenly laid her hand on his arm.

"Leighton, I have decided to leave the yacht at Venice and take Aunt
Patty to Udine for rest and quiet. When summer is over, I shall be
ready to make arrangements for the journey to Syria and Egypt, and you
must complete your church mission to England in time to accompany us to
Jerusalem."

"Is this your itinerary, or Aunt Patty's?"

"She has set her heart upon it; and it will be agreeable to me."

CHAPTER XXVII.

Is it true that in abstract valuation, "the bird in hand, is worth two
in the bush?"

We stand beneath a loaded apricot tree, and would give all the bushel
within reach, for one crimson satin globe pendent on the extreme tip of
the most inaccessible bough; and the largest, luscious, richest colored
orange always glows defiantly, high up, close to the body of the tree,
hedged away from our eager grasp by its impenetrable chevaux de frise
of bristling thorns. The wonderful water lily we covet is smiling on
its green cushion of leaves just beyond the danger line, where death
lurks; the rhododendron flame that burned brightest amid surrounding
floral fires, and lured us, springs from the crevice of some beetling
precipice, waving a challenge over fatal chasms that bar possession;
and with fretful dissatisfaction we repine, because the colors of the
feathered captives in our gilt cages are so dull, so faded in
comparison with their brothers, flashing wings of scarlet, and breasts
of vivid blue high in the sunlight of God's free air.

The gold and silver dust that powder velvet butterflies, tarnish at a
touch, stain the fingers that clutch them; and the dewy bloom on purple
and amber grape clusters, never survives the handling of the vintager.

Leaning back in the revolving chair in front of his office desk, Mr.
Dunbar slowly tore into strips a number of notes and letters, and
suffered the fragments to fall into a waste basket somewhat faded, yet
much too elegant to harmonize with its surroundings.

When Leo quilted the lining of ruby silk and knotted the ribbons that
tied it to the wicker lace work, love pelted her cheek with roses, and
happy hope sang so loud in her ear, that she could not have divined the
cruel fact that she was preparing the dainty coffin, destined to
receive the mutilated remains of a betrothal, that typified supreme
earthly happ