r very long," I said.

"Dear me, what do you mean by that?" asked the father; but a pleased
smile showed that he understood my meaning.

"I think," I answered, "that she will hardly lack suitors."

"Hm!" grumbled he, "of suitors we can get a plenty; but if they are
worth anything, that is the question. To go a-wooing with a watch and a
silver-mounted pipe does not set the matter straight; it takes more to
ride than to say 'Get up!' Sure as I live," he went on, putting both
clenched hands on the table and bending to look out of the low window,
"if there is not one of them--a shepherd's boy just out of the
heather--oh yes, one of these customers' who run about with a couple of
dozen hose in a wallet--stupid dog! wooes our daughter with two oxen and
two cows and a half--yes, I am on to him!--Beggar!"

All this was not addressed to me, but to the new-comer, on whom he
fastened his darkened eyes as the other came along the heather path
toward the house. The lad was still far enough away to allow me time to
ask my host about him, and I learned that he was the son of the nearest
neighbor--who, by the way,

MATHILDE BLIND

(1847-1896)

[Illustration: Mathilde Blind]

Mathilde Blind was born at Mannheim, Germany, March 21st, 1847. She was
educated principally in London, and subsequently in Zurich. Since her
early school days, with the exception of this interval of study abroad,
and numerous journeys to the south of Europe and the East, she has lived
in London. Upon her return from Zurich she was thrown much into contact
with Mazzini, in London, and her first essay in literature was a volume
of poems (which she published in 1867 under the pseudonym Claude Lake)
dedicated to him. She was also in close personal relationship with Madox
Brown, W.M. Rossetti, and Swinburne. Her first literary work to appear
under her own name was a critical essay on the poetical works of Shelley
in the Westminster Review in 1870, based upon W.M. Rossetti's edition of
the poet. In 1872 she wrote an account of the life and writings of
Shelley, to serve as an introduction to a selection of his poems in the
Tauchnitz edition. She afterwards edited a selection of the letters of
Lord Byron with an introduction, and a selection of his poems with a
memoir. A translation of Strauss's 'The Old Faith and the New' appeared
in 1873, which contained in a subsequent edition a biography of the
author. In 1883, Miss Blind wrote the initial volume, 'Ge