man's heart to reward him for his
services. He would wait for that moment.

It was the most natural thing in the world that Mr. Lindsay, a young
gentleman from the city, should call to see Miss Hazard, a young lady
whom he had met recently at a party. To that pleasing duty he addressed
himself the evening after his arrival.

"The young gentleman's goin' a courtin', I calc'late," was the remark
of the Deacon's wife when she saw what a handsome figure Mr. Clement
was making at the tea-table.

"A very hahnsome young mahn," the Deacon replied, "and looks as if he
might know consid'able. An architect, you know,--a sort of a builder.
Wonder if he hasn't got any good plans for a hahnsome pigsty. I suppose
he'd charge somethin' for one, but it couldn't be much, an' he could
take it out in board."

"Better ask him," his wife said; "he looks mighty pleasant; there's
nothin' lost by askin', an' a good deal got sometimes, grandma used to
say."

The Deacon followed her advice. Mr. Clement was perfectly good-natured
about it, asked the Deacon the number of snouts in his menagerie, got an
idea of the accommodations required, and sketched the plan of a neat and
appropriate edifice for the _Porcellarium_, as Master Gridley afterwards
pleasantly christened it, which was carried out by the carpenter, and
stands to this day a monument of his obliging disposition, and a proof
that there is nothing so humble that taste cannot be shown in it.

"What'll be your charge for the plan of the pigsty, Mr. Lindsay?" the
Deacon inquired with an air of interest,--he might have been involved
more deeply than he had intended. "How much should you call about right
for the picter an' figgerin'?"

"O, you're quite welcome to my sketch of a plan, Deacon. I've seen much
showier buildings tenanted by animals not very different from those your
edifice is meant for."

* * * * *

Mr. Clement found the three ladies sitting together in the chill, dim
parlor at The Poplars. They had one of the city papers spread out on the
table, and Myrtle was reading aloud the last news from Charleston
Harbor. She rose as Mr. Clement entered, and stepped forward to meet
him. It was a strange impression this young man produced upon her,--not
through the common channels of the intelligence,--not exactly that
"magnetic" influence of which she had had experience at a former time.
It did not overcome her as at the moment of their second meeting