ir by
Magog. She was dressed prettily and carefully, with the customary
touch of color in the scarlet geranium at her white throat. Her
beautiful hair gleamed like molten gold in the warm firelight. Her
sea-blue eyes were full of soft laughter and allurement. For the
moment, under the influence of the little house of dreams, she was a
girl again--a girl forgetful of the past and its bitterness. The
atmosphere of the many loves that had sanctified the little house was
all about her; the companionship of two healthy, happy, young folks of
her own generation encircled her; she felt and yielded to the magic of
her surroundings--Miss Cornelia and Captain Jim would scarcely have
recognized her; Anne found it hard to believe that this was the cold,
unresponsive woman she had met on the shore--this animated girl who
talked and listened with the eagerness of a starved soul. And how
hungrily Leslie's eyes looked at the bookcases between the windows!

"Our library isn't very extensive," said Anne, "but every book in it is
a FRIEND. We've picked our books up through the years, here and there,
never buying one until we had first read it and knew that it belonged
to the race of Joseph."

Leslie laughed--beautiful laughter that seemed akin to all the mirth
that had echoed through the little house in the vanished years.

"I have a few books of father's--not many," she said. "I've read them
until I know them almost by heart. I don't get many books. There's a
circulating library at the Glen store--but I don't think the committee
who pick the books for Mr. Parker know what books are of Joseph's
race--or perhaps they don't care. It was so seldom I got one I really
liked that I gave up getting any."

"I hope you'll look on our bookshelves as your own," said Anne.

"You are entirely and wholeheartedly welcome to the loan of any book on
them."

"You are setting a feast of fat things before me," said Leslie,
joyously. Then, as the clock struck ten, she rose, half unwillingly.

"I must go. I didn't realise it was so late. Captain Jim is always
saying it doesn't take long to stay an hour. But I've stayed two--and
oh, but I've enjoyed them," she added frankly.

"Come often," said Anne and Gilbert. They had risen and stood together
in the firelight's glow. Leslie looked at them--youthful, hopeful,
happy, typifying all she had missed and must forever miss. The light
went out of her face and eyes; the girl vanished; it was