picture of her?"

"No, I am sorry to say I have not," he replied; "remember, she has been
hidden away on an island all her life, and I doubt if she ever had a
picture taken."

"And when will you take me to see her?" asked Alice. "I am so anxious to
meet this fairy of the shore who has stolen my brother's heart. Can't we
go down there before I return home?"

"We can," he added, "but I think we'd better wait until spring."

The next day he informed her he had secured a box at the Tremont for
that evening, and had invited the Nasons to join them. "I thought it
would relieve your mind a little, Alice," he added, "to meet your bogie
on neutral ground." And it did.

But Mrs. Nason was a long way from being the haughty spectre Alice had
conjured up, and like many excellent mothers was simply interested to
see that her only and impetuous son did not make a mesalliance. While
she had wisely made no comment regarding her son's apparent
disappointment, what Blanch had said, together with that fact, had won
for Alice a respect she was totally unaware of. That a poor and pretty
country schoolma'am was proud enough to discourage that son's attentions
because of the difference in their positions was an unusual experience
to her and one that awakened her curiosity. "I should like to meet Miss
Page," she said to Blanch when the latter had asked if she might invite
her to visit them, "and see what she is like. A girl that shows the
spirit she does is certainly worth cultivating, and as she entertained
you so nicely, by all means let us return the obligation."

When Alice's cool but polite note reached Mrs. Nason, she was piqued to
even a greater degree of curiosity, and when Albert's courteous letter,
inviting "Mrs. Nason and family to share a box at the Tremont for the
purpose of meeting my sister" was received, she returned a cordial
acceptance by bearer.

To Alice the proposed meeting was a source of dread, and when the
carriage called for Albert and herself she was in an excited state of
mind, and maybe it was not all on account of Mrs. Nason either. They had
barely taken their seats in the box, and the orchestra had only just
begun the overture, when the usher knocked and Blanch, followed by the
rest of the family, entered. That young lady greeted Alice with an
effusive kiss at once, and the next instant she found herself shaking
hands with a rotund and gray-haired lady of dignified bearing, but of
very kind and courteous ma