or to a tall, handsome stranger, in whose dancing dark eyes she
failed to read the fact that he had listened with interest to every word
exchanged between her and her daughter.

With a well-bred bow he presented her with a card, on which she read,
with astonishment:

"LOVELACE ELLSWORTH.
"Introduced to Mrs. Chase by Judith Ellsworth."

"I am Mrs. Chase, and I am glad to see you," she said, wonderingly, as
she gave him a cordial handshake, and ushered him into the little
parlor, where he saw a girl, fairer than any flower, wiping the tears
away from lovely eyes that looked like violets drowned in dew.

"My daughter Dainty, Mr. Ellsworth," said the widow; and as he took the
soft little hand, he did not wonder that her cousins had feared to risk
her rivalry for his heart.

With his charmed eyes lingering on her perfect face, he explained:

"I have been in New York for a few days, and mother wrote me to stop in
Richmond and join a party of her nieces who would start to-day on a
visit to Ellsworth."

Dainty's bright eyes laughed through their tears as she replied:

"Oh, how sorry they will be to have missed you! But they went last
night!"

"But were not you, Miss Chase, to accompany them?" he demanded; and she
handed him the girls' note, saying, demurely:

"That explains everything."

Lovelace Ellsworth read it with a somewhat malicious smile, exclaiming:

"How fortunate that I came in time to protect you on your journey!"

Mrs. Chase hastened to say:

"We shall indeed be grateful for your escort, as Dainty was about to
give up her trip through her timidity at venturing alone. Now, as soon
as we have breakfast, she will be ready."

Oh, how angry Olive and Ela would have been to see that pleasant little
party at breakfast, and afterward setting forth for the station in
Ellsworth's carriage, Mrs. Chase accompanying to see her daughter off,
and both of them perfectly delighted with their genial new acquaintance,
of whom the mother could not help thinking:

"How admiringly he looks at my bonny girl, as if indeed Olive and Ela
were right in fearing her rivalry for his heart! And how good and true
he looks, as if he might make any girl a kind, loving husband! What a
grand thing it would be for Dainty--"

She broke off the thought abruptly, for the parting was at hand, and her
daughter clung tearfully about her neck.

In a minute it was all over, and Dainty was seated in the parlor-car
with Ellsworth