wiser in love lore she would have feared it; for there is a gloom
in the beginnings of a great love, as there is gloom in deep water; a
silence which suspends expression; an attitude shy and almost
reverent, it being the nature of true love to purify the temple in
which it burns.

CHAPTER II

The next morning Harry went to New York. Mrs. Filmer, Rose, and
Adriana stood on the piazza and watched him leap into the dog-cart,
gather up the reins, and drive away at a rate supposed to be necessary
in order to "catch the train." He looked very handsome and resolute,
and the house felt empty without his predominating presence.

"Harry promises to be home again at five o'clock; then, if we are
ready, he will drive with us," said Rose; and towards this hour all
the day's hopes and happiness verged. For already Harry stole sweetly
into Adriana's imaginations, and to Rose his return was interesting,
because he was to bring back with him his friend Neil Gordon. Neil was
not Rose's ideal lover; but he was unconquered, and therefore
provoking and supposable; and as environment has much to do with love,
Rose hoped that the heart, hard as flint to her charms in the city,
might become submissive and tender among the roses and syringas.

Harry was on time, but he was alone. "Neil did not keep his
engagement," he explained, "and as I wished to keep mine, I did not
wait for him. I think we can do without Neil Gordon." Rose said he was
not at all necessary; but she suddenly lost her spirits and grumbled
at the sunshine and the dust, and did not appear to enjoy her drive in
the least. They went twice through the village, and passed Adriana's
home each time. Peter was in his garden, and he saw them, and
straightened himself that he might lift his hat to Harry's salute, and
to the kiss his handsome daughter sent him from her finger tips. The
event pleased him, but he was not unnaturally or unadvisedly proud of
it. He considered the circumstance as a result of giving his girl a
fine education, and he hoped some of the rich, miserly men of the
village would see and understand the object lesson. In the evening he
walked down to the post-office. He expected his neighbors to notice
the affair, and he had a few wise, modest words ready on the duty of
parents to educate their daughters for refined society. He intended to
say "it was natural for girls to look for the best, and that they
ought to be fitted for the best;" and so on, as far as