mn haze
which dims the horizon; golden August, with the whirr of the
reaping-machine, as the yellow wheat falls to the harvest, blending with
the cooing of wood-pigeons among the leafy shades of the park; golden
August, with its still, rich atmosphere, and roll of green champaign and
velvety coppice, and honeysuckle-twined hedgerow, and dappled kine
standing knee-deep in shaded pond; in short, golden August in one of the
fairest scenes of fair England.

Here and there red roofs clustering around a grey church tower, whose
sparkling vane flashes in the sun; here and there a solitary thatch. In
front a lovely sward stretching down to a sunken fence, and a gap,
revealing the charming vista of landscape beyond--such is the outlook
from the library window of the beautiful and sumptuous home into which
we will take a brief and only peep, for it has been for some years past
Nidia's home, and is the property of her father. _Has_ been? we said.
That it should continue to be so, forms, as it happens, the
subject-matter of the very conversation going on at that moment between
them.

Nidia herself seems in no wise to have altered; indeed, why should she,
unless to grow more charming, more alluring than before, that being the
only alteration happiness is potent to effect? For on the third finger
of her left hand a plain gold ring of suspicious newness proclaims that
she is Nidia Commerell no longer. The other party to the conversation
is her father.

"It is really good of you, child," the latter is saying, "to come back
so soon to your old father, left all alone. Not many would have done
it--at any rate, at such a time as this. But I don't want to be
selfish. You had been away from me so long, and had been so near--well,
being away altogether it would have been, I suppose, but for that fine
fellow, John Ames--that--well, I did want to see my little girl again
for a few days before she started on her travels, not in an infernal
savage-ridden country this time, thank God!"

"Of course I wanted to see you again, dear--and just as much as you did
me," returned Nidia, meaning it, too. "But even the `infernal
savage-ridden country' has its bright side."

"Meaning John Ames," said the old gentleman, with a laugh.

In aspect Mr Commerell was of about medium height, scrupulously neat in
his attire. He wore a short white beard, and had very refined features;
and looking into his eyes, it was easy to see whence Nidia had got he