s no difference,--she will go with me, I am positive."

They conversed in a low tone in one of the window recesses, but I heard
what they said; and when Mrs. Linwood afterwards told me that Meg the
Dauntless had gone off with the doctor in high glee, I was inexpressibly
relieved, for I had conceived an unconquerable terror of her. There was
other company in the house, as Edith had prophesied, but in a mansion so
large and so admirably arranged, an invalid might be kept perfectly
quiet without interfering with the social enjoyment of others.

I was slowly but surely recovering. At night Edith had her harp placed
in the upper piazza, and sang and played some of her sweetest and most
soothing strains. Another voice, too, mingled at times with the
breeze-like swelling of the thrilling chords, and a hand whose
master-touch my spirit recognized, swept the trembling strings.

How long it seemed since I had stood with _him_ under the shade of the
broad elm-tree! With what fluctuating emotions I looked forward to
meeting him again!

At length the doctor pronounced me able to go down stairs.

"I am going to keep the wild-cat till you are a little stronger," he
said. "She has made herself acquainted with the whole neighborhood, and
keeps us in a state of perpetual mirth and excitement. What do you think
she has done? She has actually made Mr. Regulus escort her on horseback
into the country, and says she is resolved to captivate him."

I could not help laughing at the idea of my tall, awkward master, a
knight-errant to this queen of the amazons.

"How would you like to be supplanted by her?" he mischievously asked.

"As an assistant teacher?"

"As an assistant for life. Poor Regulus! he was quite sick during your
absence; and when I accused him of being in love, the simple-hearted
creature confessed the fact and owned the soft impeachment. I really
feel very sorry for him. He has a stupendous heart, and a magnificent
brain. You ought to have treated him better. He would be to you a tower
of strength in the day of trouble. Little girl, you ought to be proud of
such a conquest."

"It filled me with sorrow and shame," I answered, "and had he not
himself betrayed the secret, it never would have been known. It seemed
too deep a humiliation for one whom I so much respected and revered, to
bow a supplicant to me. You do not know how unhappy it made me."

"You must get hardened to these things, Gabriella. As you seem to be
qui