n the stair and the
rustling gown introduced Mrs. Yorke's portly figure was: "Heavens! it's
the old lady! I wonder what the old dragon will do, and whether I am not
to see Her!" He observed her embarrassment as she entered the room, and
took courage.

The next moment they were fencing across the room, and Keith was girding
himself like another young St. George.

How was his school coming on? she asked.

He was not teaching any more. He had been to college, and had now taken
up engineering. It offered such advantages.

She was so surprised. She would have thought teaching the very career
for him. He seemed to have such a gift for it.

Keith was not sure that this was not a "touch." He quoted Dr. Johnson's
definition that teaching was the universal refuge of educated indigents.
"I do not mean to remain an indigent all my life," he added, feeling
that this was a touch on his part.

Mrs. Yorke pondered a moment.

"But that was not his name. His name was Balsam. I know, because I had
some trouble getting a bill out of him."

Keith changed his mind about the touch.

Just then there was another rustle on the stair and another step,--this
time a lighter one,--and the next moment appeared what was to the young
man a vision.

Keith's face, as he rose to greet her, showed what he thought. For a
moment, at least, the dragon had disappeared, and he stood in the
presence only of Alice Yorke.

The girl was, indeed, as she paused for a moment just in the wide
doorway under its silken hangings,--the minx! how was he to know that
she knew how effective the position was?--a picture to fill a young
man's eye and flood his face with light, and even to make an old man's
eye grow young again. The time that had passed had added to the charm of
both face and figure; and, arrayed in her daintiest toilet of blue and
white, Alice Yorke was radiant enough to have smitten a much harder
heart than that which was at the moment thumping in Keith's breast and
looking forth from his eager eyes. The pause in the doorway gave just
time for the picture to be impressed forever in Keith's mind.

Her eyes were sparkling, and her lips parted with a smile of pleased
surprise.

"How do you do?" She came forward with outstretched arm and a cordial
greeting.

Mrs. Yorke could not repress a mother's pride at seeing the impression
that her daughter's appearance had made. The expression on Keith's face,
however, decided her that she would hazard no