iously through the dewy
elm-arches of Springdale. The green turf on either side of the wide
streets was mottled and flecked with vivid flashes and glimmers of
emerald, like the sheen of a changeable silk, as here and there long
arrows of sunlight darted down through the leaves and touched the
ground.

The gardens between the great shady houses that flanked the street
were full of tall white and crimson phloxes in all the majesty of
their summer bloom, and the air was filled with fragrance; and Lillie,
after a two hours' toilet, came forth from her chamber fresh and
lovely as the bride in the Canticles. "Thou art all fair, my
love; there is no spot in thee." She was killingly dressed in the
rural-simplicity style. All her robes and sashes were of purest white;
and a knot of field-daisies and grasses, with French dew-drops on
them, twinkled in an infinitesimal bonnet on her little head, and her
hair was all _creped_ into a filmy golden aureole round her face. In
short, dear reader, she was a perfectly got-up angel, and wanted only
some tulle clouds and an opening heaven to have gone up at once, as
similar angels do from the Parisian stage.

"You like me, don't you?" she said, as she saw the delight in John's
eyes.

John was tempted to lay hold of his plaything.

"Don't, now,--you'll crumple me," she said, fighting him off with a
dainty parasol. "Positively you shan't touch me till after church."

John laid the little white hand on his arm with pride, and looked down
at her over his shoulder all the way to church. He felt proud of her.
They would look at her, and see how pretty she was, he thought. And so
they did. Lillie had been used to admiration in church. It was one of
her fields of triumph. She had received compliments on her toilet
even from young clergymen, who, in the course of their preaching and
praying, found leisure to observe the beauties of nature and grace in
their congregation. She had been quite used to knowing of young men
who got good seats in church simply for the purpose of seeing her;
consequently, going to church had not the moral advantages for her
that it has for people who go simply to pray and be instructed. John
saw the turning of heads, and the little movements and whispers of
admiration; and his heart was glad within him. The thought of her
mingled with prayer and hymn; even when he closed his eyes, and bowed
his head, she was there.

Perhaps this was not exactly as it should be; yet