ses with a broad sweep, taking the road around the
largest lake. Here the spoiled beauty ordered him to stop. She wanted to
look at the swans, "such great, white, lovely drifting snowballs as they
were." Mrs. Harrington made no objection, but leaned back with a
resigned smile on her lips.

A person possessed of far more imagination than Elsie Mellen ever
dreamed of, might have stopped on the very road to paradise to gaze on
that pretty, Arcadian scene.

The lake was one glow of silver, broken up in long, glittering swaths by
troops of swans that sailed over it with leisurely gracefulness, now
pausing to crop the short grass from the sloping banks, or ruffling
their short white plumage, and stretching their arched necks for
payments of fruit whenever they came near a group of children, or saw a
rustic from the country, who was sure to delight in seeing the birds
feed.

The sunshine came slanting in from the west, cooling half the park with
shadows, and lighting the rest with gleams of purplish gold. The paths
around the margin of the lake, and all the sloping banks were alive with
gayly dressed people, and a single boat, over which a flock of gay
parasols hovered like tropical birds, mirrored itself in the water.

"Now see what you have gained by obeying my orders," exclaimed Elsie,
casting her merry eyes over the scene. "I declare the swans look like a
fleet of fairy boats. How I would like to sail about on one! There, that
will do James, drive on."

"Home?" inquired the man.

Before his mistress could answer, Elsie broke in--"Yes, Mrs. Harrington,
since you are properly submissive, we will go home, if you wish."

"Oh, I only proposed it because we have so much to do. I should enjoy a
longer drive. Indeed, now that you have suggested it, we will take at
least one turn."

"That's a darling," cried Elsie; and, without further ceremony, she
ordered the coachman to take the Bloomingdale road, laughing out
something about dying for old sheep instead of lambs. "But I want to
stop at Maillard's," protested Mrs. Harrington, "and I then must see
about--"

"Oh, never mind, we shall have time enough," exclaimed Elsie. "Drive
like the wind, James, the moment you get beyond these horrid policemen.
I wouldn't have anybody pass us for the world."

The coachman obeyed, and directly those two black horses were dashing
along the road in splendid style, leaving care and prudence far behind
them.

Elsie was in her element, w