ysterious things in his own soul and give him the word which will
convince him that the finest things are really attainable, and he will
love and follow you always.

I now began to look with much excitement to a visit at one of the
houses on the hill, but to my disappointment I found the next two that
I approached still closed up, for the spring was not yet far enough
advanced to attract the owners to the country. I walked rapidly onward
through the gathering twilight, but with increasing uneasiness as to the
prospects for the night, and thus came suddenly upon the scene of an odd
adventure.

From some distance I had seen a veritable palace set high among the
trees and overlooking a wonderful green valley--and, drawing nearer,
I saw evidences of well-kept roadways and a visible effort to make
invisible the attempt to preserve the wild beauty of the place. I saw,
or thought I saw, people on the wide veranda, and I was sure I heard the
snort of a climbing motor-car, but I had scarcely decided to make my way
up to the house when I came, at the turning of the country road, upon
a bit of open land laid out neatly as a garden, near the edge of which,
nestling among the trees, stood a small cottage. It seemed somehow
to belong to the great estate above it, and I concluded, at the first
glance, that it was the home of some caretaker or gardener.

It was a charming place to see, and especially the plantation of trees
and shrubs. My eye fell instantly upon a fine magnolia--rare in this
country--which had not yet cast all its blossoms, and I paused for
a moment to look at it more closely. I myself have tried to raise
magnolias near my house, and I know how difficult it is.

As I approached nearer to the cottage, I could see a man and woman
sitting on the porch in the twilight and swaying back and forth in
rocking-chairs. I fancied--it may have been only a fancy--that when I
first saw them their hands were clasped as they rocked side by side.

It was indeed a charming little cottage. Crimson ramblers, giving
promise of the bloom that was yet to come, climbed over one end of the
porch, and there were fine dark-leaved lilac-bushes near the doorway:
oh, a pleasant, friendly, quiet place!

I opened the front gate and walked straight in, as though I had at last
reached my destination. I cannot give any idea of the lift of the heart
with which I entered upon this new adventure. Without the premeditation
and not knowing what I shoul