ie, the object of his ardent
admiration, standing in the flower garden, herself the fairest flower of
all. It was beyond human nature to resist stopping still to gaze upon
her. This he did, believing himself unseen, but Faynie Fairfax had
beheld the tall, well-known form afar down the road, and she was not
displeased at the prospect of having a delightful little chat with the
handsome young cashier.

Faynie's home was not as congenial to the young girl as it might have
been, for a stepmother reigned supreme there, and all of her love was
lavished upon her own daughter Claire, a crippled, quiet girl of about
Faynie's own age, and Faynie was left to do about as she pleased. Her
father almost lived in his library among his books, and she saw little
of him for days at a time.

Therefore there was no one to notice why Faynie suddenly developed such
a liking for roaming in the garden at twilight; no one to notice the
growing attachment that sprang up and deepened into the strongest of
love between the petted heiress and the poor young cashier.

Lester Armstrong had struggled manfully against it, but it was for a
higher power than man's to direct where the love of his heart should go.
He made strong resolutions that the lovely maiden should never guess the
existing state of affairs, but he might as well have attempted to stay
the mighty waters of the ocean by his weak will. All in an unforeseen
moment the words burst from his lips--the secret he had attempted to
guard so carefully was out.

He had expected that beautiful Faynie Fairfax would turn from him in
anger and dismay, but to his intense surprise, she burst into a flood of
tears, even though she looked at him with smiling lips, April sunshine
and showers commingled, confessing with all a young girl's pretty,
hesitating shyness that she loved him, even as he loved her, with all
her heart. Then followed half an hour of bliss for the lovers such as
the poets tell of in their verses of a glimpse of Paradise.

Although they exchanged a hundred vows of eternal affection, Lester
Armstrong hesitated to speak of marriage yet. Faynie was young--only
eighteen. There was plenty of time. And to tell the truth, he dared not
face the possibilities of it just yet. It required a little more courage
than he had been able to muster up to seek an audience with the
millionaire--beard the lion in his den, as it were--and dare propose
such a monstrously preposterous thing as the asking o