ment.

She was very lonely, and felt both sad and depressed, as she saw the
party pass out of sight down the avenue, and for a moment she was tempted
to rebel against her hard lot, and the neglect of others, who might at
least have remembered that she had a soul to be benefited by Sabbath
services as well as they.

She even shed a few tears of regret, for she was young and buoyant, and
would dearly have loved to join that gay company of youths and maidens,
if she could have done so as an equal.

But after a few moments she bravely wiped away the crystal drops, saying:

"I will not grieve; I will not give up to _anything_ until I have seen
Ray. If _he_ is true, the world will be bright, though everybody else
gives me the cold shoulder--and he will be here to-morrow. But I _am_
a trifle lonely, all by myself in this great house. I believe I will run
down to the music-room and play for a little while. No one is here to be
disturbed by it, and I shall not be afraid of critics."

So she went slowly down the dimly lighted stairs to a room on the right
of the hall, where, without even turning up the gas, she seated herself
at the piano.

The "dim religious light" was rather pleasant to her, in her tender mood,
and she could see well enough for her purpose.

She ran her skilled fingers lightly over the keys of the sweet-toned
instrument, and almost immediately her whole soul began to wake up to the
rich harmony which she evoked.

She played a few selections from Beethoven's "Songs Without Words," sang
a ballad or two, and was just upon the point of getting up to look for a
book of Sabbath hymns, when a step behind her caused her to turn to
ascertain who was intruding upon her solitude.

She saw standing in the doorway leading from the hall, a tall form clad
in a long overcoat and holding his hat in his hand.

She could not distinguish his features, but courteously arose to go
forward to see who the stranger was, when he spoke, and his tones
thrilled her instantly to the very center of her being.

"Pardon me," he began. "I rang the bell, but no one answered it, and, the
door being ajar, I ventured to enter. Can you tell me--Ah!--_Mona_!"

The speaker had also advanced into the room as he spoke, but the light
was too dim for him to recognize its occupant until he reached her side,
although she had known him the instant he spoke.

His start and exclamation of surprise, the glad, almost exultant tone as
he uttered he