tty figure of Rachel Varnhagen, dressed in billowy
muslin, a picture hat which was adorned with the brightest of ribbons
and artificial flowers, and the daintiest of shoes. Her sallow cheeks
were tinged with a carmine flush, her pearly teeth gleamed behind a
winning smile, and a tress of glossy hair, escaped from under her frail
head-dress, hung bewitchingly upon her shoulder.

"Oh, how do you _do_?" she exclaimed effusively, as she closed her silk
parasol. "I look an awful guy, I know; but there's _such_ a wind, that
I've almost been blown to pieces."

It was the first time that Rose's humble roof had had the privilege of
sheltering the daughter of the rich Jew.

"I'm afraid I hardly expected you." The Pilot's daughter looked frankly
and with an amused smile at Rachel. "I'm in the middle of bottling
fruit. Do you mind coming into the kitchen?--the fruit will spoil if I
leave it."

Leading the way, she was followed by her pretty caller, who, in all her
glory, seated herself on a cane-bottomed chair in the kitchen, and
commenced to gossip.

"I've _such_ news," she said, tapping the pine floor with the ferrule of
her parasol. Rose continued to transfer her plums to the preserving-pan.
"I expect you heard of the dreadful experience I had with that horrid,
drunken digger who caught me on the foot-bridge--everybody heard of it.
Who do you think it was that saved me?"

She waited for Rose to risk a guess.

"I suppose," said the domestic girl, her arms akimbo as she faced her
visitor, "I should think it ought to have been Mr. Zahn."

"Oh, him!" exclaimed Rachel, disgustedly. "I've jilted him--he was rude
to Papa."

"Then _who_ could it be?" Rose placed more plums in the preserving-pan.

"_You_ ought to know." Just the trace of a pout disfigured Rachel's
pretty mouth. "He's a friend of yours, I believe; a very great friend,
indeed."

"I've a good many friends." The preserving-pan was now full, and Rose
sat down, to wait a few minutes till the fruit should be ready for
bottling.

"Papa is simply in love with him. He says he can never repay him. And
how he laughed when I told him that my gallant rescuer threw the digger
into the water! Can't you guess who it is, _now_?"

Rose was silent.

"Really, I think this stupid cooking and jam-making has made you silly.
Why don't you work in the morning, and go out in the afternoon to see
your friends?"

Rose turned her blue eyes on her visitor. They distinctly said, "Wh