d enjoyed
the fresh evening breeze. The sun set magnificent upon the low western
shore which they had now left an hour away, and a broad stripe of color
stretched behind the steamer. A few thin, luminous clouds darkened
momently along the horizon, and then mixed with the land. The stars came
out in a clear sky, and a light wind softly buffeted the cheeks, and
breathed life into nerves that the day's heat had wasted. It scarcely
wrinkled the tranquil expanse of the lake, on which loomed, far or near,
a full-sailed schooner, and presently melted into the twilight, and left
the steamer solitary upon the waters. The company was small, and not
remarkable enough in any way to take the thoughts of any one off his own
comfort. A deep sense of the coziness of the situation possessed them
all which was if possible intensified by the spectacle of the captain,
seated on the upper deck, and smoking a cigar that flashed and fainted
like a stationary fire-fly in the gathering dusk. How very distant,
in this mood, were the most recent events! Niagara seemed a fable of
antiquity; the ride from Rochester a myth of the Middle Ages. In this
pool, happy world of quiet lake, of starry skies, of air that the soul
itself seemed to breathe, there was such consciousness of repose as if
one were steeped in rest and soaked through and through with calm.

The points of likeness between Isabel and Mrs. Ellison shortly made them
mutually uninteresting, and, leaving her husband to the others, Isabel
frankly sought the companionship of Miss Kitty, in whom she found a
charm of manner which puzzled at first, but which she presently fancied
must be perfect trust of others mingling with a peculiar self-reliance.

"Can't you see, Basil, what a very flattering way it is?" she asked of
her husband, when, after parting with their friends for the night, she
tried to explain the character to him. "Of course no art could equal
such a natural gift; for that kind of belief in your good-nature and
sympathy makes you feel worthy of it, don't you know; and so you can't
help being good-natured and sympathetic. This Miss Ellison, why, I can
tell you, I shouldn't be ashamed of her anywhere." By anywhere Isabel
meant Boston, and she went on to praise the young lady's intelligence
and refinement, with those expressions of surprise at the existence of
civilization in a westerner which westerners find it so hard to receive
graciously. Happily, Miss Ellison had not to hear th