s
encountered the young man. A whole heart full of sunshine was in the
smile with which he greeted her. But, with a startled look, she turned
quickly and ran away; and the dog, still full of frolic, went bounding
by her side. As Alfred tried to pursue them, a bough knocked off his
hat. Without stopping to regain it, he sprang over a holly-hedge, and
came in view of the veranda of a house, just in time to see the fairy
and her dog disappear behind a trellis covered with the evergreen
foliage of the Cherokee rose. Conscious of the impropriety of pursuing
her farther, he paused to take breath. As he passed his hand through his
hair, tossed into masses by running against the wind, he heard a voice
from the veranda exclaim,--

"Whither so fast, Loo Loo? Come here, Loo Loo!"

Glancing upward, he saw a patrician-looking gentleman, in a handsome
morning-gown, of Oriental fashion, and slippers richly embroidered. He
was reclining on a lounge, with wreaths of smoke floating before him;
but seeing the stranger, he rose, and taking the amber-tubed cigar from
his mouth, he said, half laughing,--

"You seem to be in hot haste, Sir. Pray, what have you been hunting?"

Alfred also laughed, as he replied,--

"I have been chasing a charming little girl, who would not be caught.
Perhaps she was your daughter, Sir?"

"She _is_ my daughter," rejoined the gentleman. "A pretty little witch,
is she not? Will you walk in, Sir?"

Alfred thanked him, and said that he was in search of a Mr. Duncan,
whose residence was in that neighborhood.

"I am Mr. Duncan," replied the patrician. "Jack, go and fetch the
gentleman's hat, and bring cigars."

A negro obeyed his orders, and, after smoking awhile on the veranda, the
two gentlemen walked round the grounds.

Once when they approached the house, they heard the pattering of little
feet, and Mr. Duncan called out, with tones of fondness,--

"Come here, Loo Loo! Come, darling, and see the gentleman who has been
running after you!"

But the shy little fairy ran all the faster, and Alfred saw nothing but
the long red ribbons of her gypsy hat, as they floated behind her on the
wind.

Declining a polite invitation to dine, he walked back to the city. The
impression on his mind had been so vivid, that, as he walked, there rose
ever before him a vision of that graceful arch with waving vines, the
undulating flight of the silver-breasted doves, and the airy motions of
that beautiful child. How wo