and in a very different dress
from that in which you used to see me; but for all that, I am still a
sister of the House of Martha, and so"--

"So what?" I interrupted.

"I suppose I should go back to the house," she answered.

Now I began to warm up furiously.

"Don't think of it!" I exclaimed. "Now that I have met you, give me a
few moments of your time. Let me see you as you are, free and
undisguised, like other women, and not behind bars or in charge of old
Sister Sarah."

"Wasn't she horrid?" said Sylvia.

"Indeed she was," I replied; "and now cannot you walk a little with me,
or shall we sit down somewhere and have a talk?"

She shook her head. "Even if mother and the rest had not gone away in
the boat, I could not do that, you know."

If she persisted in her determination to leave me, she should know my
love in two minutes. But I tried further persuasion.

"We have spent hours together," I said; "why not let me make you a
little visit now?"

Still she gently shook her head, and looked away. Suddenly she turned
her face toward me. Her blue eyes sparkled, her lips parted, and there
was a flush upon her temples.

"There is one thing I would dearly like," she said, "and I think I could
stay for that. Will you finish the story of Tomaso and Lucilla?"

"I shall be overjoyed to do it!" I cried, in a state of exultation.
"Come, let us sit over there in the shade, at the bottom of this hill,
and I will tell you all the rest of that story."

Together we went down the little slope.

"You can't imagine," she said, "how I have longed to know how all that
turned out. Over and over again I have finished the story for myself,
but I never made a good ending to it. It was not a bit like hearing it
from you."

I found her a seat on a low stone near the trunk of a tree, and I sat
upon the ground near by, while my soul bounded up like a loosened
balloon.

"Happy thought!" she exclaimed. "I came out here to write letters, not
caring for fishing, especially in boats; how would you like me to write
the rest of the story from your dictation?"

Like it! I could scarcely find words to tell her how I should like it.

"Very well, then," said she, opening her portfolio and taking out some
sheets of paper. "My inkstand is in that case which you picked up;
please give it to me, and let us begin. Now this is a very different
affair. I am finishing the work which the House of Martha set me to do,
and I assure you that I hav