and died ten year ago. Well, she used to
say it was a picture to see Miss Wealthy when she was expecting Mr. La
Rose (Victor La Rose was his name). She would put on a white gown, with
a bunch of pansies in the front of it; they were his favorite flowers,
Mary said, and he used to call her his Pansy, which means something in
French, I don't rightly know what; and then she would come out on the
lawn, and look and look down river. Most times he came up in his
sail-boat,--he loved the water, and was more at home on it than on land,
as you may say. And when she saw the white boat coming round the bend,
she would flush all up, old Mary said, like one of them damask roses in
your belt, Miss Hilda; and her eyes would shine and sparkle, and she'd
clap her hands like a child, and run down to the wharf to meet him.
Standing there, with her lovely hair blowing about in the wind, she
would look more like a spirit, Mary would say, than a mortal person.
Then when the boat touched the wharf, she would hold out her little
hands to help him up; and he, so strong and tall, was glad to be helped,
just to touch her hand. And so they would come up to the house together,
holding of hands, like two happy children. And full of play they was,
tossing flowers about and singing and laughing, all for the joy of being
together, as you may say; and she always with a pansy for his
button-hole the first thing; and he looking down so proud and loving
while she fastened it in. And most times he'd bring her something,--a
box of chocolate, or a new book, or whatever it was,--but old Mary
thought she was best pleased when he came with nothing but himself. And
both of them that loving and care-taking to the old gentleman, as one
don't often see in young folks courting; making him sit with them on the
piazza after tea, and the young man telling all he'd seen and done since
the last time; and then she would take her guitar and sing the sweetest,
old Mary said, that ever was sung out of heaven. Then by and by old Mr.
Bond would go away in to his book, and they would sit and talk, or walk
in the moonlight, or perhaps go out on the water. She was a great hand
for the water, Mary said; and never's been on it since that time. Not
that it's to wonder at, to my mind. Ah, dear me!

"Well, my dears, they was to be married in the early fall, as it might
be September. He had built that pretty house, so as she needn't be far
from her father, who was getting on in years, a