r Nurse
was just dropping asleep when I left her. I've put a table-cover and
a blanket over 'Mrs. Mackenzie' to keep her from quacking. Mrs.
Prettyman has not been very well, poor dear, and is in bed. We've just
talked about the lovely new home she's going to have, and the
transplanted plum tree; small, but warranted to bear in a year or two
and give plums and jam like this one. I left her so happy!"

She stopped and looked up. "Oh! can any new tree be as beautiful as
this one? Was ever anything in the world more exquisite? It has
just come to its hour of perfection, Mr. Lavendar; it couldn't
last,--anything so lovely in a passing world."

She sat down on the low wall, and looked up at the tree. It stood and
shone there in its perfect hour. Another day, and the blossoms, too
fully blown, would begin to drift upon the ground with every little
shaking wind; now it was at its zenith, a miracle of such white beauty
that it caused the heart to stop and consider. Bees and butterflies
hummed and flew around it; it cast a delicate shadow on the grass, and
leaning across the wall it was imaged again in the river like a bride
in her looking-glass.

Robinette sat gazing at the tree, and Lavendar sat gazing at her. At
that moment he "feared his fate too much" to break the silence by any
question that might shatter his hope, as the first breeze would break
the picture that had taken shape in the glassy water beneath them.

"I feel in a better temper now," said Robinette. "Who could be angry,
and look at that beautiful thing? I've left dear old Nurse quite happy
again, and I haven't yet offended Aunt de Tracy irrevocably, and all
because you persuaded me not to be unreasonable. All the same I could
do it again in another minute if I let myself go. Doesn't injustice
ever make people angry in England?"

Lavendar laughed. "It often makes me feel angry, but I've never found
that throwing the reins on the horses' necks when they wanted to
bolt, made one go along the right road any faster in the end."

"I often think," said Robinette, "if we could see people really angry
and disagreeable before we--" She hesitated and added, "get to know
them well, we should be so much more careful."

"Yes," said Mark, bending down his head and speaking very deliberately,
"that's why I wish you could have seen me in all my worst moments.
I'd stand the shame of it, if you could only know, but, alas, one
can't show off one's worst moments to order; t