ittle delay. Somebody had fainted. I wonder
they didn't all faint, the air was so hot and thick; and to crown all,
the window near us had to be shut, because that fat woman didn't want a
draught on her back! When they got the fainting person out, and the
window shut, I saw the flutter of a white dress, and knew the eighth and
last essay was coming.

"'That's Eloise,' Bell said, as a slender little girl walked on to the
rostrum, looking as fresh, and cool, and sweet as a--well, as the white
lilies of which I am so fond.

"'By George!' I said, so loud that those nearest me must have heard me,
and wondered what ailed me.

"Perhaps she heard me, for she looked at me with her beautiful eyes,
which steadied me, and kept me quiet all through her essay. Don't ask
me what it was about. I don't know. I was so absorbed in the girl
herself, she was so graceful, and pretty, and self-possessed, and her
voice was so musical that I could think of nothing but her; and when she
finished I cheered louder than anybody else, and kept on cheering as
they do in plays when they want them to come back, till Bell nudged my
side, and whispered, 'Are you crazy? Everybody is looking at you.'

"I was a little ashamed to be spatting away alone, but it pleased the
fat woman, who proved to be Mrs. Brown, the keeper of the
basket-boarders.

"'That's Miss Smith. She done nice, didn't she, and she or'to of had
some flowers,' she said to me; and then I remembered with a pang that
not a flower had been sent up to her--the flower of them all--and wished
I had a whole green-house to give her.

"Did she think of it? I wondered, as I watched her after she sat down.
The big hat had moved a little, and I could see the top of Eloise's
head, with its crown of reddish-brown hair, on which a gleam of sunshine
from a window fell, bringing out tints of gold, as well as red. That
sounds rather poetical, don't it? for a prosy chap who professes never
to have been moved by any piece of femininity, however dainty. I'll
confess I was moved by this little girl. She is very slight and very
young, I judge. I like Mrs. Brown, and do not think her perfumery bad,
or herself very fat, and am glad they had the window shut for her. I
wouldn't have her in a draught for anything, because she told me Eloise
was the nicest girl she ever had in her house, and the best scholar in
her class. Of course she is; I'd swear to that. She may not be rooted
and grounded in the fundamentals