away to dance. All the evening we did not
come near to each other. Only once, as she passed, she smiled at me.

The next morning I left the town.

I never saw her again.

Years afterwards I heard she had married and gone to America; it may or
may not be so--but the rose--the rose is in the box still! When my faith
in woman grows dim, and it seems that for want of love and magnanimity
she can play no part in any future heaven; then the scent of that small
withered thing comes back:--spring cannot fail us.

Matjesfontein, South Africa.

III. "THE POLICY IN FAVOUR OF PROTECTION--".

Was it Right?--Was it Wrong?

A woman sat at her desk in the corner of a room; behind her a fire burnt
brightly.

Presently a servant came in and gave her a card.

"Say I am busy and can see no one now. I have to finish this article by
two o'clock."

The servant came back. The caller said she would only keep her a moment:
it was necessary she should see her.

The woman rose from her desk. "Tell the boy to wait. Ask the lady to
come in."

A young woman in a silk dress, with a cloak reaching to her feet,
entered. She was tall and slight, with fair hair.

"I knew you would not mind. I wished to see you so!"

The woman offered her a seat by the fire. "May I loosen your cloak?--the
room is warm."

"I wanted so to come and see you. You are the only person in the world
who could help me! I know you are so large, and generous, and kind to
other women!" She sat down. Tears stood in her large blue eyes: she was
pulling off her little gloves unconsciously.

"You know Mr.--" (she mentioned the name of a well-known writer): "I
know you meet him often in your work. I want you to do something for
me!"

The woman on the hearth-rug looked down at her.

"I couldn't tell my father or my mother, or any one else; but I can tell
you, though I know so little of you. You know, last summer he came and
stayed with us a month. I saw a great deal of him. I don't know if he
liked me; I know he liked my singing, and we rode together--I liked him
more than any man I have ever seen. Oh, you know it isn't true that a
woman can only like a man when he likes her; and I thought, perhaps, he
liked me a little. Since we have been in town we have asked, but he has
never come to see us. Perhaps people have been saying something to him
about me. You know him, you are always meeting him, couldn't you say
or do anything for me?" She looked up with her lips