en she was twelve years old, he had stopped her on the street
to tell her that she had dropped her pocket-handkerchief. It had been
very polite of the old gentleman, and she had been glad not to lose
her handkerchief. Yet, as she thanked him, she gave him one searching
look, and she told herself that he had a very cross expression, as
well as a very harsh voice.

This uncomplimentary verdict was largely due to the fact that, at this
period, Di had quite made up her mind that her grandfather was a
hateful, unreasonable old despot, and that it served him right never
to come to the family parties, nor to have any Christmas presents, nor
to have seen the baby, which Mamma said was the prettiest of all her
babies, and which Di considered the most enchanting object on the face
of the earth.

But again many years had passed,--four, in this instance,--and there
came a time, only a few weeks previous to the opening of our story,
when Di found herself constrained to modify her view of her
grandfather.

It happened that she had gone with her drawing teacher, Miss Downs, to
an exhibition of paintings. Among the pictures was a very striking one
entitled _Le Grandpere_. It represented an old French peasant, just
stopping off work for the day, with a flock of grandchildren clinging
about his knees. Miss Downs called Di's attention to the wonderful
reach of upland meadow, and the exquisite effect of the sunset light
on the face of the old man; but, to Di, the meadow and the sunset
light were unimportant accessories to the central idea. It was the
grandfather himself that commanded all her attention,--the look of
blissful indulgence on the old man's face; his attitude of protecting
affection towards one young girl in particular, on whose head the
toil-stained hand rested.

"Yes," she said, after several minutes of rapt contemplation: "Yes;
the sunset is very nice, and the fields; but, oh, the old man is such
a darling!"

As she spoke she turned to see how her teacher took her remark, and
found herself face to face, not with Miss Downs, but with her own
grandfather! She gave a little gasp of surprise, which he appeared not
to notice.

"So you think him a darling, do you?" he asked, and somehow his voice
did not sound quite as harsh as it had done four years ago.

Miss Downs had passed on, and there was no one standing near them, no
one at all in the gallery who shared Di's knowledge of the strange
situation. She felt sure that