elief to my feelings!"

"Oh, so should I--badly; but I'm afraid I couldn't kick hard enough,"
said Kitty humbly. "The worst of it is you have to be civil, because to
show your suspicions would be the most unkind thing you could do. I
know Nan agrees with us, and I think Elsie too, but the others seem
quite pleased and satisfied."

"Well, let it be a lesson to you, never to allow yourself to be
influenced by looks. `Appearance is deceitful, and beauty vain,'"
quoted Jim sententiously. "That Vanburgh fellow, for instance, is, I
suppose, better-looking to the casual glance than I am myself, but I
don't need to point out to you the infinite superiority of my character.
Whenever, my estimable Katherine, you meet with a man who is popularly
styled handsome, take my word for it, he is a wolf in sheep's clothing,
and ought to be avoided. People like you and me, with noble hearts and
ugly faces,"--but at this point even Kitty's forbearance came to an end,
and she stalked off to the house in a fume of indignation. Feminine
fourteen does not find the consolation it should in nobility of
character at the cost of plainness of feature!

Gervase and Nan, left alone on the garden seat, had meantime turned
towards each other with inquiring smiles. It was the first time they
had found themselves alone, and each was anxious to question the other
concerning the time of absence.

"Well," quoth he, "and how have you been, and what have you been about
all this long month?"

"Quite well, thank you; and I'm proud to say, slaving like a nigger for
the good of my fellow-creatures. An ignorant man can hardly realise the
amount of work it takes to get up a sale like this, but I shall bear the
marks to my grave. Look at that!" and she held out towards him a pair
of sunburned hands, shapely enough, but disfigured with sundry scars and
bruises inflicted by hammer and chisel. Her look of pride in her wounds
was comically in contrast to her companion's distress, as his glance
wandered from the little hard-worked fingers to his own white hands,--
almond-nailed, soft-palmed, taper-fingered, the hands of a man who has
lived an idle life, and known little or nothing of the reality of work.
Nan's eyes followed his, and she laughed in amused fashion. "Mine look
like the man's, and yours like the woman's! The contrast makes mine
browner than ever. How do you manage to keep them so white?"

"Don't!" said Gervase shortly. "I am not at all pro