ith heavy lashes, were of that peculiar
gray color which at times may be touched by all shades, while a trace of
blue always predominates. There was nothing worth remarking about other
portions of her face, save that, critically examined, too much of it
seemed to have got into her chin, and her upper lip had a strange habit
of hugging her brilliantly white teeth too closely, and then curling
upward before meeting the lower one, where sometimes crimson and ashy
paleness played like quick and cruel lightning, a key to the slumbering
devils within her. At these times, too, there was a certain light in her
eyes that an observing person would feel a peculiar dread of awakening,
though usually her face showed a complete repose, and it would have been
difficult to decide whether she was a very ordinary or a very
extraordinary character.

Still, with her magnificent figure and strangely attractive face, she
was a young woman to strongly draw just two classes of men towards
her--students of character and students of form. The first she
invariably disappointed and repelled, always awakening the indefinable
dread I have mentioned, while her presence among the latter class as
swiftly opened the floodgates of passion to swiftly sweep the better
nature and all good resolves before it. So, with her peculiarly
unfortunate construction, it is not strange that, on arriving at that
period of life when the almost omnipotent power of a self-willed woman
begins to develop and hint at the possibilities beyond the threshold of
the strange life her inexperienced feet had just reached, Lilly
Nettleton should have felt an oppressive sense of littleness in the
quiet community in which she lived, and experienced a burning desire to
cast these humble associations from her, to compel admiration and
conquer whoever and whatever she might meet in the wide, wide world
beyond.

CHAPTER II.

The "Circuit-Rider."-- Mr. Pinkerton and these Gospel
Knights-Errant in the early Days.-- The Rev. Mr. Bland
appears.-- "And Satan came also!"-- A "charge" is
established.-- A Compact "where the golden maple-leaves
fall."-- Bland departs.-- "The scared form of a young
Woman steals away from her Home!"

During the summer the presiding elder of the Kalamazoo district decided
to bid for the benighted souls that dwelt in Mr. Nettleton's
neighborhood, and made arrangements to "supply" the school-house at the
corners where Lill