les, of
beauty, accomplishments, and independence of mind and purse. Brought
up, and having just completed her education in the city of London, she
was now a bird let loose in the free air of the country, whither she
had been drawn by affection for her sister, and a desire, not
unmingled with romance, to see the land of liberty, and exult in the
freedom of its rural scenes. And exult she _did_--now in the woods and
fields gathering wild-flowers, and now, mounted on her English pony,
galloping over the hills and away--the villagers said, "none knew
where"--the stared-at of all starers, if not "the admired of all
admirers." Though Miss May was sweet enough to savor all the village
with amiability, and musical enough to harmonize the whole, the venom
of the serpent made her sweetness gall to the senses of her brother's
envious flock, and her music was discord in their ears.

One morning, as Miss May was riding rapidly over a bridge, her pony
stumbled on a loose plank and threw her over his head so violently,
that she was taken up senseless by a miller who lived on the stream,
and conveyed into his humble abode, where the good man committed her
to the care of his wife, while he went for the doctor. Now the village
physician, who was a middle-aged, married man, had a bachelor brother
connected with him, who was the envy of the village beaux for his
gentlemanly air and good looks, _he_ it was who, in this instance,
hastened to answer the urgent call of the miller. Dr. Mannerly, on his
arrival, found Miss May recovering from her unconsciousness, and quite
alarmed at seeing herself in such strange circumstances; but his
gentleness, joined with the homely manifestations of kindness and
concern on the part of the miller and his wife, soon composed her
mind, and after the doctor had taken some blood from her beautiful
arm, she was enabled to rise and receive his assurance that she had
sustained no very serious injury by the fall. Being, however, too much
bruised to mount her pony again, she accepted the doctor's polite
offer to take her home in his buggy.

Before night Miss May's adventure was the gossip of the village;
especially her ride homeward with the doctor, who was observed to look
uncommonly interested, and to be engaged in earnest conversation with
his fair companion; nor did it escape the vigilant eye of Mrs. Tiptop
that the doctor's buggy stood at the minister's gate every day for a
week thereafter, and longer each s