s and incidents, not knowing that
as children they had been playmates. The gallant captain's present
admiration was pretty plain; and the young lady was amused by it after
the manner of her sex. Being very downright himself, Mr. Holt had no
idea how much admiration is required to fill the measure of a proposal
of marriage in a red-coat's resolve, or how much harmless coquetry lies
dormant in the sweetest woman.

The precipitate gentleman leaped to sundry conclusions, gathered himself
and his fur robes into his cutter, and left on the third day of Captain
Argent's visit. In her secret heart, I imagine that Linda knew why.

But an engrossing affair to her at this period was the concealment from
their visitor of the decidedly active part she took in household duties.
Innocent Captain Argent was unaware that the faultless hot bread at
breakfast was wrought by her hands; that the omelets and ragouts at
dinner owned her as cook; that the neatness of the little parlour was
attributable to her as its sole housemaid. The mighty maiden called
Liberia had enough to do in other departments, outdoor as well as
indoor, besides being rather a ponderous person for a limited space.

And so, when Captain Argent one morning pushed open the parlour door
long before he ought to have left his apartment, he beheld a figure with
short petticoats, wrapt in a grey blouse, and having a hood of the same
closely covering her hair, dusting away at the chairs and tables and
shelves, with right goodwill.

'Now, Georgie, you know that you can't sit here till I have quite
finished,' said the figure, without turning its head. 'Like a good boy,
ask Libby to come and build up the fire: ask gently, remember, or she'll
not mind you.'

The noiseless manner of closing the door caused her first to doubt the
identity of the person spoken to, and a very vivid crimson dyed her
cheeks, when, Liberia coming in, her blacksmith arms laden with logs,
she threw them down with resounding clatter, and said, 'Wal, ef that
ain't the nicest, soft speakin'est gentleman I ever see! He asked me as
perlite for the wood, as he couldn't be perliter ef I war Queen Victory
herself.'

'How fortunate that I didn't turn round my head!' thought Linda, her
first confusion over; 'for of all horridly unbecoming things, showing no
hair about one's face is the worst.'

Whence it will be seen that Miss Wynn was not exempt from female vanity.

To the cat thus let out of the bag, Capta