e had faded into the night
air, she turned her now serious eyes toward him and said:

"Did I guess right?"

How much he longed to take that fair girl in his arms then and there and
ask her to be his own sweet Alice need not be specified. For a moment
her tender blue eyes met his brown ones, and then they fell.

"I am glad I did not make a mistake," she said softly.

"I thank you," he almost whispered, "and there won't be many waking
moments in my future when I shall not think of--sweet Alice!"

It was not much of a love scene, but to him it seemed a wide-open door
of hope, and when many miles separated them, and for days, weeks, and
months afterward, even when doing his best to crowd dull law reports
into his brain, the one tender glance she gave him and the tones of her
voice came back with unfailing accuracy.

There is no spot where every one knows everybody else's business and
discusses it that is quite equal in this way to a small country town,
and Sandgate was no exception. The first visit of Frank Nason to the
Page home, his sleigh-rides with Alice, and his appearance at church had
caused no end of comment. It was known that he had been a classmate of
Albert's and came from Boston, and later Aunt Susan vouch-safed the
information that she "guessed he came from one o' the first families and
that he appeared right well behaved."

It was all she really did know, for both Alice and her brother were
considerate of her failings and knew it was not safe to discuss their
visitor in her presence. The tempest of gossip had not more than half
quieted down when it received a regular boom from his second coming. The
pupils of the north end district school spread the news of their
teacher's unexpected callers; that they heard her kiss one, and which
one they did not know; and that she had dismissed school at once and
gone on with the stranger. Old Amos Curtis, the miller, told of their
visit, and, wonder upon wonder, how the next day "her beau" had given
him a five-dollar bill "jest fer lettin' 'em use a leaky old boat fer an
hour."

The buxom Abby Miles had the best and longest story to tell, and her
praise of Mr. Nason, how polite he was, and "how he couldn't keep his
eyes off'n Alice all the afternoon," was whispered to every girl she
knew. The five-dollar incident created the most gossip, however. The
miller had remarked that a "young feller who threw money 'round that way
must be rich," and that remark soon grew i