t-looking girl in a dark
brown dress and straw bonnet?"

"That is my friend Nelly Hardy," Jack said seriously.

"Yes, you have often spoken to me about her and I have wanted to see
her; what a nice face she has, and handsome too, with her great dark
eyes! Jack, you must introduce me to her, I should like to know her."

"Certainly," Jack said with a pleased look; and accompanied by Alice he
walked across the lawn towards her.

Nelly turned the instant that they moved, and walking away joined some
other girls. Jack, however, followed.

"Nelly," he said, when he reached her, "this is Miss Merton, who wants
to know you. Miss Merton, this is my friend Nelly Hardy."

Nelly bent her head silently, but Alice held out her hand frankly.

"Jack has told me so much about you," she said, "that I wanted, above
all things, to see you."

Nelly looked steadily up into her face. It was a face any one might look
at with pleasure, frank, joyous, and kindly. It was an earnest face too,
less marked and earnest than that now looking at her, but with lines of
character and firmness.

Nelly's expression softened as she gazed.

"You are very good, Miss Merton; I have often heard of you too, and
wanted to see you as much as you could have done to see me."

"I hope you like me now you do see me," Miss Merton laughed; "you won't
be angry when I say that I like you, though you did turn away when you
saw us coming.

"You are accustomed to meet people and be introduced," Nelly said
quietly; "I am not, you see."

"I don't think you are shy," Miss Merton said smiling, "but you had a
reason; perhaps some day when we know each other better you will tell
me. I have been scolding Jack for making such a figure of himself. You
are his friend and should not let him do it."

Jack laughed, while Nelly looked in surprise at him.

"What is the matter with him?" she asked; "I don't see that there is
anything wrong."

"Not wrong," Miss Merton said, "only singular to me. He has got on
clothes just like all the rest, which don't fit him at all, and look as
if they had been made to put on to a wooden figure in a shop window,
while when we see him he is always properly dressed."

Nelly flashed a quiet look of inquiry at Jack.

"You never told me, Jack," she said, with an aggrieved ring in her
voice, "that you dressed differently at Birmingham to what you do here."

"There was nothing to tell really," he said quietly. "I told you that I
had had so