by this little drama; then he looked at the
bright green arch which separated the dark verandah from the bright hot
garden. The arch was darkened, and looking he saw something which made
his heart move strangely, something that he has not forgotten yet, and
never will.

Under the arch between the sunlight and the shade, bareheaded, dressed
in white, stood a girl, so amazingly beautiful, that Sam wondered for a
few moments whether he was asleep or awake. Her hat, which she had just
taken off, hung on her left arm, and with her delicate right hand she
arranged a vagrant tendril of the passion-flower, which in its
luxuriant growth had broken bounds and fallen from its place above.--A
girl so beautiful that I in all my life never saw her superior. They
showed me the other day, in a carriage in the park, one they said was
the most beautiful girl in England, a descendant of I know not how many
noblemen. But, looking back to the times I am speaking of now, I said
at once and decidedly, "Alice Brentwood twenty years ago was more
beautiful than she."

A Norman style of beauty, I believe you would call it. Light hair, deep
brilliant blue eyes, and a very fair complexion. Beauty and high-bred
grace in every limb and every motion. She stood there an instant on
tiptoe, with the sunlight full upon her, while Sam, buried in gloom,
had time for a delighted look, before she stepped into the verandah and
saw him.

She floated towards him through the deep shadow. "I think," she said in
the sweetest, most musical little voice, "that you are Mr. Buckley. If
so, you are a very old friend of mine by report." So she held out her
little hand, and with one bold kind look from the happy eyes, finished
Sam for life.

Father and mother, retire into the chimney corner and watch. Your day
is done. Doctor Mulhaus, put your good advice into your pocket and
smoke your pipe. Here is one who can exert a greater power for good or
evil than all of you put together. It was written of old,--"A man shall
leave his father and mother and cleave unto his----" Hallo! I am
getting on rather fast, I am afraid.

He had risen to meet her. "And you, Miss Brentwood," he said, "are
tolerably well known to me. Do you know now that I believe by an
exertion of memory I could tell you the year and the month when you
began to learn the harp? My dear old friend Jim has kept me quite AU
FAIT with all your accomplishments."

"I hope you are not disappointed in me," said