ent
maples, robed and crowned in emerald, gold, and royal crimson, are the
queens."

"I am glad you love the forest, and are susceptible to nature's
subtile appeals. I don't like people who have no feeling for scenery,
and are not affected by the sublime and beautiful in nature. Mr.
Blennerhassett does not agree with me in applying such a test to judge
one's friends by. He thinks I might be deceived, and says that very
wicked folks may delight in very lovely scenes. In my opinion the good
and the beautiful are in harmony, and a wicked heart seldom goes with
an aesthetic taste. I may be wrong, but I like to think that souls
which are thrilled by the stars and the mountains and the sea, and by
such forms and colors as we now contemplate, must be the nobler and
purer for the experience."

Burr listened attentively to this rhapsody. The melodious voice spoke
on: "I never grow tired gazing on this landscape. Splendid!"

"Splendid!" echoed Burr.

A subdued rapture animated the lady's features and imparted fresh
vitality of beauty to her breathing form. She advanced to the edge of
the water, stepped upon the ferryboat, an uncouth scow, like a
floating wharf, with stout railing upon the sides. From this platform
she could take in a fuller prospect. The joy of admiration possessed
her. She stood, self-forgetful, looking upon the gleaming river and
the distant, gorgeous Ohio hills. Burr, lingering on the bank, a few
yards behind, certainly took an intense human interest in the
landscape, seeing in the foreground that symmetrical figure, with
plump arm outstretched. To be the sole spectator of that unstudied
pose was worth more than the Vatican and all the galleries in the
world.

"See the bright sunshine, the soft shadow, the dim gold of the water,
and the misty blue of the sky! Those magnificent hills seem not solid
substance but piled clouds, yellow, and green, and scarlet. Can any
other valley in the world show a more satisfactory picture, outlines
as lovely, tints so delicate!"

"Nowhere else, in all my travels," murmured Burr, speaking from his
point of view. "Nowhere have I seen so much beauty at a single glance.
The picture is unrivalled."

"Do you say this in earnest or only to please me?" queried the frank
gentlewoman, turning her face shoreward in time to see a pair of dark
eyes regarding her with unaccountable ardor. Burr courteously
proffered his hand to assist her from the pedestal, the deck of the
scow. S