inued, gently. "It
makes them quite white."

"No," exclaimed Mr. Langham and King, hurriedly, as they both turned
and gazed with absorbing interest at the convent on the hills above
them.

Before the sisters went to sleep that night Hope came to the door of
her sister's room and watched Alice admiringly as she sat before the
mirror brushing out her hair.

"I think it's going to be fine down here; don't you, Alice?" she asked.
"Everything is so different from what it is at home, and so beautiful,
and I like the men we've met. Isn't that Mr. MacWilliams funny--and he
is so tough. And Captain Stuart--it is a pity he's shy. The only
thing he seems to be able to talk about is Mr. Clay. He worships Mr.
Clay!"

"Yes," assented her sister, "I noticed on the balcony that you seemed
to have found some way to make him speak."

"Well, that was it. He likes to talk about Mr. Clay, and I wanted to
listen. Oh! he is a fine man. He has done more exciting things--"

"Who? Captain Stuart?"

"No--Mr. Clay. He's been in three real wars and about a dozen little
ones, and he's built thousands of miles of railroads, I don't know how
many thousands, but Captain Stuart knows; and he built the highest
bridge in Peru. It swings in the air across a chasm, and it rocks when
the wind blows. And the German Emperor made him a Baron."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I couldn't understand. It was something about plans
for fortifications. He, Mr. Clay, put up a fort in the harbor of Rio
Janeiro during a revolution, and the officers on a German man-of-war
saw it and copied the plans, and the Germans built one just like it,
only larger, on the Baltic, and when the Emperor found out whose design
it was, he sent Mr. Clay the order of something-or-other, and made him
a Baron."

"Really," exclaimed the elder sister, "isn't he afraid that some one
will marry him for his title?"

"Oh, well, you can laugh, but I think it's pretty fine, and so does
Ted," added Hope, with the air of one who propounds a final argument.

"Oh, I beg your pardon," laughed Alice. "If Ted approves we must all
go down and worship."

"And father, too," continued Hope. "He said he thought Mr. Clay was
one of the most remarkable men for his years that he had ever met."

Miss Langham's eyes were hidden by the masses of her black hair that
she had shaken over her face, and she said nothing.

"And I liked the way he shut Reggie King up too," continued Hope,
stoutly