tion of size she could have got from pictures
when she asked me if the Crystal Palace was much bigger than the
hot-houses at Lewis Castle?"

"What a world of wonder the girl is coming into!" said the other
meditatively. "But it will be all lit up by one sun if only you take
care of her and justify her belief in you."

"I have not much doubt," said Lavender with a certain modest
confidence in his manner which had repeatedly of late pleased his
friend.

Even Sheila herself could scarcely have found London more strange than
did the two men who had just returned from a month's sojourn in the
northern Hebrides. The dingy trees in Euston Square, the pale sunlight
that shone down on the gray pavements, the noise of the omnibuses and
carts, the multitude of strangers, the blue and mist-like smoke that
hung about Tottenham Court road,--all were as strange to them as the
sensation of sitting in a hansom and being driven along by an unseen
driver. Lavender confessed afterward that he was pervaded by an odd
sort of desire to know whether there was anybody in London at all
like Sheila. Now and again a smartly-dressed girl passed along the
pavement: what was it that made the difference between her and that
other girl whom he had just left? Yet he wished to have the
difference as decided as possible. When some bright, fresh-colored,
pleasant-looking girl passed, he was anxious to prove to himself that
she was not to be compared with Sheila. Where in all London could
you find eyes that told so much? He forgot to place the specialty of
Sheila's eyes in the fact of their being a dark gray-blue under black
eyelashes. What he did remember was that no eyes could possibly say
the same things to him as they had said. And where in all London was
the same sweet aspect to be found, or the same unconsciously proud
and gentle demeanor, or the same tender friendliness expressed in a
beautiful face? He would not say anything against London women, for
all that. It was no fault of theirs that they could not be sea-kings'
daughters, with the courage and frankness and sweetness of the sea
gone into their blood. He was only too pleased to have proved to
himself, by looking at some half dozen pretty shop-girls, that not in
London was there any one to compare with Princess Sheila.

For many a day thereafter Ingram had to suffer a good deal of this
sort of lover's logic, and bore it with great fortitude. Indeed,
nothing pleased him more than to observe