o pale and sad, Lina, that my heart ached for him. I am very thankful
that I have never had any other proposals to decline. It is a very
unpleasant experience. But," she added, with a little tinge of
satisfaction in her sweet voice, "I am glad I had one. It--it has made
me feel more like other people, you know, dear."

Miss Sally's Company

"How beautiful!" said Mary Seymour delightedly, as they dismounted
from their wheels on the crest of the hill. "Ida, who could have
supposed that such a view would be our reward for climbing that long,
tedious hill with its ruts and stones? Don't you feel repaid?"

"Yes, but I am dreadfully thirsty," said Ida, who was always practical
and never as enthusiastic over anything as Mary was. Yet she, too,
felt a keen pleasure in the beauty of the scene before them. Almost at
their feet lay the sea, creaming and shimmering in the mellow
sunshine. Beyond, on either hand, stretched rugged brown cliffs and
rocks, here running out to sea in misty purple headlands, there
curving into bays and coves that seemed filled up with sunlight and
glamour and pearly hazes; a beautiful shore and, seemingly, a lonely
one. The only house visible from where the girls stood was a tiny grey
one, with odd, low eaves and big chimneys, that stood down in the
little valley on their right, where the cliffs broke away to let a
brook run out to sea and formed a small cove, on whose sandy shore the
waves lapped and crooned within a stone's throw of the house. On
either side of the cove a headland made out to sea, curving around to
enclose the sparkling water as in a cup.

"What a picturesque spot!" said Mary.

"But what a lonely one!" protested Ida. "Why, there isn't another
house in sight. I wonder who lives in it. Anyway, I'm going down to
ask them for a drink of water."

"I'd like to ask for a square meal, too," said Mary, laughing. "I am
discovering that I am hungry. Fine scenery is very satisfying to the
soul, to be sure, but it doesn't still the cravings of the inner girl.
And we've wheeled ten miles this afternoon. I'm getting hungrier every
minute."

They reached the little grey house by way of a sloping, grassy lane.
Everything about it was very neat and trim. In front a white-washed
paling shut in the garden which, sheltered as it was by the house, was
ablaze with poppies and hollyhocks and geraniums. A path, bordered by
big white clam shells, led through it to the front door, whose steps
we