account," Mr. Heath
remarked, with a swift and grateful glance at the graceful form and
flushed face that was bending over the glowing coals, where the young girl
was toasting to a delicate brown a slice from a wheaten loaf.

"No, indeed; it is no trouble; and a meal after your long ride in the rain
will not come amiss," Virgie answered, looking up and meeting his fine
eyes for an instant.

She deposited the bread upon a plate, and inviting the young man to be
seated, poured with her own hands a cup of fragrant coffee, which she
placed before him.

She continued to wait upon him with exquisite ease and grace until his
hunger was appeased, which was not soon, for it was a rare pleasure for
him to watch her beautiful and expressive face while he chatted with her
father, sipped his coffee, and ate his toast.

But he finished at length, and then Chi Lu was summoned the table cleared,
and the room restored to its usual order.

Mr. Abbot seldom had met a real gentleman since coming among the
mountains; he had lived chiefly within himself and for his child. But now
he found that he had not lost all interest in the outside world, and he
enjoyed immensely Mr. Heath's account of his travels, and his descriptions
of men and things.

Virgie had not seen her father so bright and animated in all the five
years of their secluded life, and she began to hope that his fears
regarding his failing health were groundless after all. She, too, enjoyed
the young stranger's conversation, although she did not join in it. She
sat by, with her dainty embroidery in her hands, listening, and showing by
her expressive face and shining eyes how rare a pleasure such congenial
society was to her.

But by and by she stole away to her own room, where she lay far into the
night thinking of the handsome stranger--of his eager yet respectful
glances when he looked at her; of the low, rich cadence of his voice when
he spoke to her, and feeling that she should miss him more than she had
ever yet missed anyone during the last five years, when he should go away
on the morrow.

The two men talked some time longer after Virgie left; the Chi Lu was
called again, the pretty lounge was converted into a comfortable bed, and
Mr. Heath was told that the parlor was at his service for the night.

The young man was very thankful for the hearty hospitality of which he had
been the recipient, and felt that he had been extremely fortunate in
finding such a pleasant