y face,' and that, as I would
have to look after myself when he was dead and gone, I must be
educated. Therefore, I was sent to the dreary Convent school at M----.
And there I studied hard, looking forward to the time when, having
learned all they could teach me, I might breathe again outside the
four stone walls; for, by my step-papa's commands, I was not permitted
to roam outside the sisters' domains until my studies should reach an
end. Then they brought me back, and my polite step-papa called me an
'educated idiot;' and my good old Hagar cried over me; and I made
friends with the birds, and the trees. Ever since, always avoiding my
worthy ancestor-in-law, I have been wondering what it would be like to
be happy among true friends, in a bright spot somewhere, far away from
this place, where I never have been happy for a day at a time, even as
a child."

"Never, little girl?" The eyes were very reproachful, and the man's
hand was held out entreatingly. "Never, darling?"

She looked up in his face shyly, yet trustfully, and then putting her
hand in his, said: "Never, until I knew you, Lucian; and always since,
I think, except--"

She hesitated, and the color fled out of her face.

"Except when I think that the day draws near when you will leave me.
And when the great world has swallowed you up, you will forget the
'little girl' you found in the woods, perhaps."

A smile flitted across the face of the listener, and he turned away
for a moment to conceal the lurking devil gleaming out of his eyes.
Then, flinging away his half finished cigar, he took both her hands in
his, and looking down into her clear eyes, said:

"Then don't let me go away from you, beauty. Don't stay here to make
dismal meditations among the gloomy trees. Don't pass all the weary
Winter with Curmudgeon, who will marry you to an old bag of gold. Come
with me; come to the city and be happy. You shall see all the glories
and beauties of the gay, bright world. You shall put dull care far
behind you. You shall be my little Queen of Hearts, to love and care
for always. Sweetheart, will you come?"

He was folding her close now, and she nestled in his arms with perfect
trustfulness, with untold happiness shining in her bright eyes. She
was in no haste to answer his eager question, and he smiled again; and
once more the lurking devil laughed out of his eyes. But he held her
tenderly to him, in silence for a time, and then lifted the blushing
face to m