r matrons."

My tone was formal and she looked surprised at it, but my news was
welcome and so she made me a demure little courtesy before saying
joyously:

"Yes, the house is nearly done, and to-morrow Orrin and I are going up
there together to see it. The Colonel has asked us to do this that we
might say whether all is to our liking and convenience."

"The Colonel is a man in a thousand," I began, but, seeing her frown
in her old pettish way, I perceived that she partook enough of Orrin's
spirit to dislike any allusion to one whose generosity threw her own
selfishness into startling relief.

So I said no more on this topic, but let my courtesy expend itself in
good wishes, and came away at last with a bewildering remembrance of
her beauty, which I am doing my best to blot out by faithfully
recounting to myself the story of those infinite caprices of hers
which have come so near wrecking more than one honorable heart.

I do not expect to visit her again until I pay my respects to her as
Orrin's wife.

* * * * *

It is the day when Orrin and Juliet are to visit the new house. If I
had not known this from her own lips, I should have known it from the
fact that the workmen all left at noon, in order, as one of them said,
to leave the little lady more at her ease. I saw them coming down the
road, and had the curiosity to watch for the appearance of Orrin and
the Colonel at Juliet's gate but they did not come, and assured by
this that they meditated a later visit than I had anticipated, I went
about my work. This took me up the road, and as it chanced, led me
within a few rods of the wood within which lies the new stone house. I
had not meant to go there, for I have haunted the place enough, but
this time there was reason for it, and satisfied with the fact, I
endeavored to fix my mind on other matters and forget who was likely
at any moment to enter the forest behind me.

But when one makes an effort to forget he is sure to remember all the
more keenly, and I was just picturing to my mind Juliet's face and
Juliet's pretty air of mingled pride and disdain as the first sight of
the broad stone front burst upon her, when I heard through the
stillness of the woods the faint sound of a saw, which coming from the
direction of the house seemed to say that some one was still at work
there. As I had understood that all the men had been given a
half-holiday, I felt somewhat surprised at this,