ng lawn seemed carpeted with
green velvet, enlivened here and there with groups of beautiful foliage
plants. Fountains were playing in the sunlight, their glistening spray
tinted with rainbow lights. Flowers bloomed in profusion, their colors
set off by the gray background of the stone walls of the house. The
syringas by the bay-windows were bent to the ground with their burden of
snowy blossoms, whose fragrance, mingled with that of the June roses,
greeted him as he approached. He forgot his three weeks' absence and the
rapid growth in that high altitude; the change seemed simply magical.
Then, as he caught a glimpse through the pines of a slender, girlish
figure, dressed in white, darting hither and thither, he wondered no
longer; it was but the fit accompaniment of the young, joyous life which
had come to the old place.

As he came out into the open, he saw a young girl romping up and down
before the house with a fine Scotch collie, and he could not restrain a
smile as he recalled Mrs. Dean's oft-repeated declaration that there was
one thing she would never tolerate, and that was a dog or a cat about
the house. She had not yet seen him; but when she did, the frolic ceased
and she started towards the house. Then suddenly she stopped, as though
she recognized some one or something, and stood awaiting his approach,
her lips parted in a smile, two small, shapely hands shading her eyes
from the sun. As he came nearer, he had time to note the lithe, supple
figure, just rounding into the graceful outlines of womanhood; the full,
smiling lips, the flushed cheeks, and the glint of gold in her brown
hair; and the light, the beauty, the fragrance surrounding her seemed an
appropriate setting to the picture. She was a part of the scene.

Darrell, of course, had no knowledge of his own age, but at that moment
he felt very remote from the embodiment of youth before him; he seemed
to himself to have been suddenly relegated to the background, among the
elder members of the family.

The collie had been standing beside his mistress with his head on one
side, regarding Darrell with a sharp, inquisitive look, and he now broke
the silence, which threatened to prove rather embarrassing, with a short
bark.

"Hush, Duke!" said the girl, in a low tone; then, as Darrell dismounted,
she came swiftly towards him, extending her hand.

"This is Mr. Darrell, I know," she said, speaking quite rapidly in a
clear, musical voice, without a shade