glancing down at her.

Slanting between the lower branches of the trees the sunshine touched
the young girl's hair in flickering spots and crept down her dress
like caressing hands of light, until her figure, passing into a solid
shadow, left these glimmerings prone upon the dusty road behind her.
The "brides," or strings of her little muslin cap, flaunted in the
breeze and a shawl of China crape fluttered from her shoulders. So
much of her dusky hair as defied concealment contrasted strongly with
the calm translucent pallor of her face. The eyes, alone, belittled
the tranquillity of countenance; against the rare repose of features,
they were the more eloquent, shining beneath brows, delicately defined
but strongly marked, and shaded by long upturned lashes, deep in tone
as a sloe.

"You are an early riser," he resumed.

"Not always," she replied. "But after yesterday it seemed so bright
outdoors and the country so lovely!"

His gaze, following hers, traversed one of the hollows. Below yet
rested deep shadows, but upon the hillside a glory celestial enlivened
and animated the surrounding scene. Scattered houses, constituting the
little hamlet, lay in the partial shade of the swelling land, the
smoke, with its odor of burning pine, rising lazily on the languid
air. In the neighboring field a farm hand was breaking up the ground
with an old-fashioned, pug-nosed "dirt-rooter;" soil as rich as that
of Egypt, or the land, Gerar, where Isaac reaped an hundred fold and
every Israelite sat under the shadow of his own vine.

Pausing, the husbandman leaned on the handle of his plow and
deliberately surveyed the couple on the road. Having at the same time
satisfied his curiosity and rested his arms, he grasped the handles
once more and the horses pulled and tugged at the primitive
implement.

While the soldier and the young girl were thus occupied in surveying
the valley and the adjacent mounds and hummocks, the horse,
considering doubtlessly that there had been enough inaction, tapped
the ground with rebellious energy and tossed his head in mutiny
against such procrastination.

"Your horse wants to go on," she said, observing this equine by-play.

"He usually does," replied the rider. "Perhaps, though, I am
interrupting you? I see you have a play in your hand."

"I was looking over a part--but I know it very well," she added,
moving slowly from the border of willows. Leading his horse, he
followed.

His features, s