ad sent for tutors to teach his daughter music and the
languages. And I noticed that at this she pouted again, and indeed
bore herself in a way which promised less for her future learning than
for that influence which breathes from gleaming eyes and witching
smiles. Ah, I fear she is a frivolous fairy, but how pretty she is,
and how dangerously captivating to a man who has once allowed himself
to study her changes of feeling and countenance. When I came away I
felt that I had gained nothing, and lost--what? Some of the
complacency of spirit which I had acquired after much struggle and
stern determination.

* * * * *

Colonel Schuyler has not yet returned, and now Orrin has gone away.
Indeed, no one knows where to find him nowadays, for he is here and
there on his great white horse, riding off one day and coming back the
next, ever busy, and, strange to say, always cheerful. He is making
money, I hear, buying up timber and then selling it to builders, but
he does not sell to one builder, whose house seems to suffer in
consequence. Where is the Colonel, and why does he not come home and
look after his own?

I have learned her secret at last, and in a strange enough way. I was
waiting for her father in his own little room, and as he did not come
as soon as I anticipated, I let my secret despondency have its way for
a moment, and sat leaning forward, with my head buried in my hands. My
face was to the fire and my back to the door, and for some reason I
did not hear it open, and was only aware of the presence of another
person in the room by the sound of a little gasp behind me, which was
choked back as soon as it was uttered. Feeling that this could come
from no one but Juliet, I for some reason hard to fathom sat still,
and the next moment became conscious of a touch soft as a rose-leaf
settle on my hair, and springing up, caught the hand which had given
it, and holding it firmly in mine, gave her one look which made her
chin fall slowly on her breast and her eyes seek the ground in the
wildest distress and confusion.

"Juliet--" I began.

But she broke in with a passion too impetuous to be restrained:

"Do not--do not think I knew or realized what I was doing. It was
because your head looked so much like his as you sat leaning forward
in the firelight that I--I allowed myself one little touch just for
the heart's ease it must bring. I--I am so lonesome, Philo,
and--and--"

I droppe