ar her way, and quickly dismounted.

"Oh, now, wait a minute," he said, in a coaxing tone. "Don't you want
a nice big saucer of strawberries and cream before you go? Walker's
picking some now. And you haven't seen my hothouse. It's just full of
the loveliest flowers you ever saw. You like roses, don't you, and pinks
and lilies and pansies?"

He saw he had struck the right chord as soon as he mentioned the
flowers. The sullen look vanished as if by magic. Her face changed as
suddenly as an April day.

"Oh, yes!" she cried, with a beaming smile. "I loves 'm bettah than
anything!"

He tied his horse, and led the way to the conservatory. He opened the
door for her to pass through, and then watched her closely to see what
impression it would make on her. He had expected a delighted exclamation
of surprise, for he had good reason to be proud of his rare plants. They
were arranged with a true artist's eye for colour and effect.

She did not say a word for a moment, but drew a long breath, while the
delicate pink in her cheeks deepened and her eyes lighted up. Then she
began going slowly from flower to flower, laying her face against the
cool, velvety purple of the pansies, touching the roses with her lips,
and tilting the white lily-cups to look into their golden depths.

As she passed from one to another as lightly as a butterfly might have
done, she began chanting in a happy undertone.

Ever since she had learned to talk she had a quaint little way of
singing to herself. All the names that pleased her fancy she strung
together in a crooning melody of her own.

There was no special tune. It sounded happy, although nearly always in a
minor key.

"Oh, the jonquils an' the lilies!" she sang. "All white an' gold an'
yellow. Oh, they're all a-smilin' at me, an' a-sayin' howdy! howdy!"

She was so absorbed in her intense enjoyment that she forgot all about
the old Colonel. She was wholly unconscious that he was watching or
listening.

"She really does love them," he thought, complacently. "To see her face
one would think she had found a fortune."

It was another bond between them.

After awhile he took a small basket from the wall, and began to fill it
with his choicest blooms. "You shall have these to take home," he said.
"Now come into the house and get your strawberries."

She followed him reluctantly, turning back several times for one more
long sniff of the delicious fragrance.

She was not at all like the C