ilated. I sat and watched. Presently a door opened,
and Sylvia came out.

Now I rose to my feet. I must go to her. It might not be honorable to
take her at this disadvantage, but there are moments when even honor
must wait for a decision upon its case. However, there was no necessity
for my going to Sylvia; she was coming to me.

As she walked directly to the spot where I stood, I saw Sylvia as I had
seen her in my day-dreams,--a beautiful girl, dressed as a beautiful
girl should dress in summer time. In one hand she carried a portfolio,
in the other a little leathern case. As she came nearer, I saw that she
was attired exactly as Mother Anastasia had been dressed when I met her
here. Nearer she came, but still she did not see me. I was not now
concealed, but her eyes seemed fixed upon the path in which she was
walking.

When she was within a hundred feet of the thicket through which her path
would lead, I advanced to meet her. I tried to appear cool and composed,
but I am afraid my success was slight. As for Sylvia, she stopped
abruptly, and dropped her leathern case. I think that at first she did
not recognize me, and was on the point of screaming. Suddenly to come
upon a man in the midst of these solitudes was indeed startling.

Quickly, however, I made myself known, and her expression of fright
changed to one of amazement. I am happy to say that she took the hand I
offered her, though she seemed to have no words with which to return my
formal greeting. In cases like this, the one who amazes should not
impose upon the amazed one the necessity of asking questions, but should
begin immediately to explain the situation.

This I did. I told Sylvia how I had been accidentally brought to Captain
Jabe's house, how I had strolled off in this direction, and how
delighted I was to meet her here. In all this I was careful not to
intimate that I had suspected her presence in this region. While
speaking, I tried hard to think what I should say when she should
remark, "Then you did not know I was here?" But she did not make this
remark. She looked at me with a little puzzled wrinkle on her brow, and
said, with a smile:--

"It is absolutely wonderful that you should be here, and I should not
know it; and that I should be here, and you should not know it."

Ever since my meeting with Mother Anastasia it had been my purpose, as
soon as I could find or make an opportunity, to declare to Sylvia my
love for her. Apart from my pa