Then," said John, "I hope you will take me under your tuition."

"Certainly, free of charge," she said, with another ravishing smile.

"You haven't seen the boiling spring yet?" she added.

"No, I haven't seen any thing yet."

"Well, then, if you'll give me your arm across the lawn, I'll show it
to you."

All of this was done in the easiest, most matter-of-course manner
in the world; and off they started, John in a flutter of flattered
delight at the gracious acceptance accorded to him.

Ethridge and Belle Trevors looked after them with a nod of
intelligence at each other.

"Hooked, by George!" said Ethridge.

"Well, it'll be a good thing for Lillie, won't it?"

"For her? Oh, yes, a capital thing _for her_!"

"Well, for _him_ too."

"Well, I don't know. John is a pretty nice fellow; a very nice fellow,
besides being rich, and all that; and Lillie is somewhat shop-worn by
this time. Let me see: she must be seven and twenty."

"Oh, yes, she's all that!" said Belle, with ingenuous ardor. "Why, she
was in society while I was a schoolgirl! Yes, dear Lillie is certainly
twenty-seven, if not more; but she keeps her freshness wonderfully."

"Well, she looks fresh enough, I suppose, to a good, honest, artless
fellow like John Seymour, who knows as little of the world as a
milkmaid. John is a great, innocent, country steer, fed on clover and
dew; and as honest and ignorant of all sorts of naughty, wicked things
as his mother or sister. He takes Lillie in a sacred simplicity quite
refreshing; but to me Lillie is played out. I know her like a book. I
know all her smiles and wiles, advices and devices; and her system of
tactics is an old story with me. I shan't interrupt any of her little
games. Let her have her little field all to herself: it's time she was
married, to be sure."

Meanwhile, John was being charmingly ciceroned by Lillie, and scarcely
knew whether he was in the body or out. All that he felt, and felt
with a sort of wonder, was that he seemed to be acceptable and
pleasing in the eyes of this little fairy, and that she was leading
him into wonderland.

They went not only to the boiling spring, but up and down so many
wild, woodland paths that had been cut for the adornment of the
Carmel Springs, and so well pleased were both parties, that it was
supper-time before they reappeared on the lawn; and, when they did
appear, Lillie was leaning confidentially on John's arm, with a wreath
of woodbine in her