atisfied at
last."

Mr. Sylvester drew a deep breath and his eyes burned strangely in the
glow of the fire-light. "You expect high things," said he; "did you ever
consider that the life in a great city, with its ceaseless rush and
constant rivalries, must be often strangely petty in despite of its
artistic and social advantages?"

"All life has its petty side," said she, with a sweet arch look. "The
eagle that cleaves the thunder-cloud, must sometimes stop to plume its
wings. I should be sorry to lose the small things out of existence. Even
we in the face of that great sunset appealing to us from the west, have
to pile up the firewood on the hearth and set the table for supper."

"But fashion, Paula," he pursued, concealing his wonder at the maturity
of mind evinced by this simple child of nature, "that inexorable power
that rules the very souls of women who once step within the magic circle
of her realm! have you never thought of her and the demands that she
makes on the time and attention even of the worshippers of the good and
the true?"

"Yes, sometimes," she returned with a repetition of her arch little
smile, "when I put on a certain bonnet I have, which Aunt Abby modeled
over from one of my grandmother's. Fashion is a sort of obstinate
step-dame I imagine, whom it is less trouble to obey than to oppose. I
don't believe I shall quarrel with Fashion if she will only promise to
keep her hands off my soul."

"But if--" with a pause, "she asks your all, what then?"

"I shall consider that I am in a country of democratic principles," she
laughed, "and beg to be excused from acceding to the tyrannical demands
of any autocrat male or female."

"You have been listening to Miss Belinda," said he; "she is also opposed
to all and any tyrannical measures." Then with a grave look from which
all levity had fled, he leaned toward the young girl and gently asked,
"Do you know that you are a very beautiful girl, Paula?"

She flushed, looked at him in some surprise and slowly drooped her head.
"I have been told I looked like my father," said she, "and I know that
means something very kind."

"My child," said he, with gentle insistence, "God has given you a great
and wonderful gift, a treasure-casket of whose worth you scarcely
realize the value. I tell you this myself, first because I prize your
beauty as something quite sacred and pure, and secondly because you are
going where you will hear words of adulation, whose fol