scarcely ever miss making a blunder. If I were only like Rose
Filmer!"

"Come, come! that is a girl out of a book."

"No; Rose is a girl out of New York. I am a girl out of Woodsome
village. There have always been a city and a country mouse, father.
And they are both good in their own way. But I could not be Rose
Filmer unless I had been rocked in Rose's cradle."

The name "Filmer" was a familiar one to Peter; for the Filmers were
Van Hoosens on one side of their house; and he wondered if this clever
Rose Filmer was not the descendant of the old Dominie Filmer who had
preached in Woodsome when he was a boy. Certainly his father had built
a stone wall and a dairy for a Dominie Filmer who was connected with
the Van Hoosens on the mother's side. He thought of this coincidence
in names for a few moments, and then dismissed the subject. In the
morning, however, it was revived in a double manner. Adriana had a
long letter from Rose Filmer, and Peter one from Mr. Filmer, asking an
estimate for building a stone house from enclosed plans. Thus the
conversation of the preceding day set the door open for the Filmers to
enter the Van Hoosen home.

Rose's letter was full of their intention to build a summer residence
"so delightfully near to Adriana." She professed to think it a special
providence in her behalf, and to care only for the movement because it
brought her back to "her dear Adriana." "I who adore the ocean," she
continued, "who feel my soul throb to its immensity, am content to
dwell on the placid river bank, if, by so doing, I may have the joy of
my dear Adriana's presence."

It was a charming thing that Adriana believed fully in this feminine
affection, and that even Rose deceived herself as completely. Girls
adore one another until they find lovers to adore; and there is a
certain sincerity in their affection. All the following year, as the
great stone house progressed to its completion, Rose wrote just such
letters to her beloved Yanna as she might easily have written to the
most exacting and devoted lover; and neither of the girls imagined
that they were in a great measure the overflow of a life restrained on
every other side. To the world, Rose made every effort to be the very
flower and perfume of serenity and self-poise, and thus to set herself
free to her friend was like drawing a good full breath after some
restraint had been taken away.

There had been a possibility of a break in this union of souls,