n a
vigorous sketch, of which herself was the prominent object. And who
could blame him? for certainly a lovelier picture, or one more full of
harmonious contrast, could hardly have been found, than that presented
by the sweet and graceful figure of the rector's daughter, with its
surroundings of massive masonry and majestic decay. She all life, a
creature of the present, and yet still more of the future, as bright
with the sunshine of a hope that could never die; and they, those
mouldering stones, that broken tracery, those mossy arches, sad in the
desolation of the present, sadder still in the memories of an
unenlightened past. Frank finished his sketch, and, holding it behind
him, stole gently up to the side of Mary Oliphant.

"Ah!" he exclaimed, "a most lovely little bit; and yet, I have the
vanity to think that my choice of a subject has been better than your
own."

"The drawing is, no doubt," she answered; "but I hardly think you can
find such a picturesque group as this in any other part of the ruins."

"Let us compare, then," he said, and placed his own sketch by the side
of hers.

"Oh, Frank," she cried, "how can you be so foolish?"

At the same time the colour which flushed her face, and the bright smile
which lighted it, showed that the folly was not very reprehensible in
her eyes.

"Is it so very foolish?" he asked, half seriously, half playfully.
"Well; I wish I had shown the same kind of folly in my choice of some
other things as I have in the choice of a subject."

She was about to reply, when suddenly, without any warning, a savage-
looking dog dashed into the open space before them, and, making a fierce
rush at Mary, caught her by the dress.

"Down, you brute, down!" shouted Frank; but the dog still retained his
hold, and growled and tossed himself about savagely. Frank had no stick
nor weapon of any kind in his hands, but he darted to a heap of loose
stones, and snatching one up turned towards the dog. In the meantime,
Mary, in extreme terror, had dropped her drawing-pad, and plucking her
dress from the fierce creature's mouth, fled with all her speed across
the pavement, and sprang up the projecting stones of an old archway.
The dog, with a loud yell, followed her, and easily overtook her, as the
ascent up which she had climbed presented a broad footing. Utterly
terrified, and unconscious of what she was doing, the poor girl
clambered higher and higher to escape her enemy. Frank had n