on, a good
forehead, a nose after no recognized generation of noses, yet an
attractive one, a mouth larger than to human judgment might have seemed
necessary, yet a right pleasing mouth, with two rows of lovely teeth.
All this Donal saw approach without dismay. He was no more shy with
women than with men; while none the less his feeling towards them
partook largely of the reverence of the ideal knight errant. He would
not indeed have been shy in the presence of an angel of God; for his
only courage came of truth, and clothed in the dignity of his
reverence, he could look in the face of the lovely without
perturbation. He would not have sought to hide from him whose voice
was in the garden, but would have made haste to cast himself at his
feet.

Bonnet in hand he advanced to meet Kate Graeme. She held out to him a
well-shaped, good-sized hand, not ignorant of work--capable indeed of
milking a cow to the cow's satisfaction. Then he saw that her chin was
strong, and her dark hair not too tidy; that she was rather tall, and
slenderly conceived though plumply carried out. Her light approach
pleased him. He liked the way her foot pressed the grass. If Donal
loved anything in the green world, it was neither roses nor hollyhocks,
nor even sweet peas, but the grass that is trodden under foot, that
springs in all waste places, and has so often to be glad of the dews of
heaven to heal the hot cut of the scythe. He had long abjured the
notion of anything in the vegetable kingdom being without some sense of
life, without pleasure and pain also, in mild form and degree.

CHAPTER XXI.

A FIRST MEETING.

He took her hand, and felt it an honest one--a safe, comfortable hand.

"My brother told me he had brought you," she said. "I am glad to see
you."

"You are very kind," said Donal. "How did either of you know of my
existence? A few minutes back, I was not aware of yours."

Was it a rude utterance? He was silent a moment with the silence that
promises speech, then added--

"Has it ever struck you how many born friends there are in the world
who never meet--persons to love each other at first sight, but who
never in this world have that sight?"

"No," returned Miss Graeme, with a merrier laugh than quite responded
to the remark, "I certainly never had such a thought. I take the
people that come, and never think of those who do not. But of course
it must be so."

"To be in the world is to have a great many