carcely larger
than a child twelve summers old, and how gloriously beautiful were the
curls of indescribable hue, falling in such profusion from beneath the
jaunty hat. All this Dr. Richards noted, marveling that she knelt so
long, and wondering what she could be saying.

Alice's devotion ended at last, and the view so coveted was obtained;
for in adjusting her dress Alice turned toward him, or rather toward his
mother, and the doctor drew a sudden breath as he met the brilliant
flashing of those laughing sunny blue eyes, and caught the radiant
expression of that face, slightly dimpled with a smile. Beautiful,
wondrously beautiful was Alice Johnson, and yet the features were not
wholly regular, for the piquant nose had a slight turn up, and the
forehead was not very high; but for all this, the glossy hair, the
dancing blue eyes, the apple-blossom complexion, and the rosebud mouth
made ample amends; and Dr. Richards saw no fault in that witching face,
flashing its blue eyes for an instant upon him, and then modestly
turning to the service just commencing. So absorbed was Dr. Richards as
not to notice that the strain of music filling the old church did not
come from the screeching melodeon he had so anathematized, but from an
organ as mellow and sweet in its tone as any he had heard across the
sea. He did not notice anything; and when his sister, surprised at his
sitting posture, whispered to him of her surprise, he started quickly,
and next time the congregation arose he was the first upon his feet,
mingling his voice with that of Alice Johnson and even excelling her in
the loudness of his reading!

As if divining his wishes in the matter, his mother turned to the
eagerly expectant doctor, whom she introduced as "My son, Dr. Richards."

Alice had heard much of Dr. Richards from the young girls of Snowdon.
She had heard his voice in the Psalter, his responses in the Litany, and
accepted it as a sign of marked improvement. He could not be as
irreverent and thoughtless as he had been represented by those who did
not like him; he must have changed during his absence, and she frankly
offered him her hand, and with a smile which he felt even to his finder
tips, welcomed him home, making some trivial remark touching the
contrast between their quiet town and the cities he had left.

"But you will help make it pleasanter for us this winter, I am sure,"
she continued, and the sweet blue eyes sought his for an answer as to
whet