oss on; and the
lace; but the face, the expression, how can I ever--?"

"Oh, never mind THEM," cried Grace. "Jael, this is too exciting. Please
go and tell them 'not at home' to anybody."

Then came a pretty picture: the workman, with his superb hand, brown and
sinewy, yet elegant and shapely as a duchess's, and the fingers almost
as taper, and his black eye that glowed like a coal over the model,
which grew under his masterly strokes, now hard, now light: the
enchanting girl who sat to him, and seemed on fire with curiosity and
innocent admiration: and the simple rural beauty, that plied the needle,
and beamed mildly with demure happiness, and shot a shy glance upward
now and then.

Yes, Love was at his old mischievous game.

Henry now lived in secret for Grace Carden, and Jael was garnering Henry
into her devoted heart, unobserved by the object of her simple devotion.
Yet, of the three, these two, that loved with so little encouragement,
were the happiest. To them the world was Heaven this glorious afternoon.
Time, strewing roses as he went, glided so sweetly and so swiftly,
that they started with surprise when the horizontal beams glorified the
windows, and told them the brightest day of their lives was drawing to
its end.

Ah, stay a little while longer for them, Western Sun. Stand still,
not as in the cruel days of old, to glare upon poor, beaten, wounded,
panting warriors, and rob them of their last chance, the shelter of the
night: but to prolong these holy rapturous hours of youth, and hope, and
first love in bosoms unsullied by the world--the golden hours of life,
that glow so warm, and shine so bright, and flee so soon; and return in
this world--Never more!

CHAPTER V.

Henry Little began this bust in a fervid hour, and made great progress
the first day; but as the work grew on him, it went slower and slower;
for his ambitious love drove him to attempt beauties of execution that
were without precedent in this kind of wood-carving; and, on the other
hand, the fastidiousness of a true craftsman made him correct his
attempts again and again. As to those mechanical parts, which he
intrusted at first to his pupil, she fell so far short of his ideal even
in these, that he told her bluntly she must strike work for the present:
he could not have THIS spoiled.

Grace thought it hard she might not be allowed to spoil her own image;
however, she submitted, and henceforth her lesson was confined to
look