ther's gratified pride.

Miss Donaldson advised that Annie should try on the dress at once, as
she prudently suggested it might require some alteration.

"Come with me, Aunt Nancy," said Annie as she left the room to comply
with this advice.

"Come back here and let us see you, Annie, when you have put it on,"
said Col. Donaldson.

Annie would have passed from the room without an answer, evading the
compliance which she could not refuse, but the Colonel called her back
and did not dismiss her till assured that the request, which he knew
would be regarded as a command, had been heard.

The dress needed no alteration. We afterwards found that Philip had sent
his friend a measure procured from Annie's maid, and the fit was
perfect. I am not quite sure that Annie, as she saw the beautiful figure
reflected in her glass, regretted the command which compelled her to
show herself to the party awaiting her in the library, to which we had
withdrawn from the breakfasting room, that we might not interfere with
the household operations, of which the latter was, at this hour, the
scene. Yet it was with a little coy delay and blushing timidity that
she, at length, suffered me to lead her thither.

"Beautiful!"--"I never saw her look so well!"--"I knew it would become
her!" were the exclamations that greeted her, on her entrance, deepening
the flush upon her cheek, and calling up a brighter smile to her lips.
Mr. Arlington alone was silent, but his soul was in his eyes, and they
spoke an admiration compared to which the words of others were tame.

"My dear Annie," said her mother, as she gazed delightedly upon her,
"how I wish I had a likeness of you in that dress!--you do look so
remarkably well in it."

Mr. Arlington stepped forward. "Would you permit me--" to Mrs.
Donaldson--"Would you do me the favor--" to Annie--"Might I be
allowed--" with a glance at the Colonel, "to gratify Mrs. Donaldson's
wish. It should be my New-Year's offering. I would ask only an hour of
your time--" deprecatingly to Annie. "That would give me an outline
which I could fill up without troubling you."

Mr. Arlington was so earnest, and Mrs. Donaldson so gratefully pleased,
that if Annie had any objections, they were completely overborne. Mr.
Arlington produced his sketching materials, and disposed his subject and
his light, and then intimated so plainly that the consciousness of the
observation of others would be fatal to his success, that we withd