will have a pleasant journey," said I. "You will find Margaret an
entertaining companion."

"O yes!" he answered, with a slight shrug of the shoulders, "but I fear
she will excite too much remark by her wild antics. I do not like to be
noticed by strangers."

"She will accommodate herself to your wishes, I know she will. You have
great influence over her."

"Me! oh no!" he cried, with equal surprise and simplicity.

"Yes, indeed you have. Talk to her rationally, as if you had confidence
in her good-sense, Mr. Regulus, and you will really find some golden
wheat buried in the chaff. Talk to her feelingly, as if you appealed to
her sensibility, and you may discover springs where you believe no
waters flow."

"It is like telling me to search for spring flowers, when the ground is
all covered with snow,--to look at the moon shining, when the night is
as dark as ebony. But I am thinking of you, Gabriella, more than of her.
I rejoice to find you the same artless child of nature that sat at my
feet years ago in the green-wood shade. But beautiful as is your palace
home, I long to see you again in our lovely valley among the birds and
the flowers. I long to see you on the green lawn of Grandison Place."

"I do feel more at home at Grandison Place," I answered. "I would give
more for the velvet lawn, the dear old elm, the oaken avenue, than for
all the magnificence of this princely mansion."

"But you are happy here, my child?"

"I have realized the brightest dreams of youth."

"God be praised!--and you have forgiven my past folly,--you think of me
as preceptor, elder brother, friend."

"My dear master!" I exclaimed, and tears, such as glisten in the eyes of
childhood, gathered in mine. I _was_ a child again, in my mother's
presence, and the shade-trees of the gray cottage seemed rustling around
me.

The entrance of Margaret interrupted the conversation. She never
appeared to better advantage than in her closely fitting riding dress,
which displayed the symmetry of her round and elastic figure. I looked
at her with interest, for I had seen those saucy, brilliant eyes
suffused with tears, and those red, merry lips quivering with womanly
sensibility. I hoped good things of Margaret, and though I could not
regret her departure, I thought leniently of her faults, and resolved to
forget them.

"Just like Margaret," said I, gathering up the beautiful drapery, on
which she had trodden as she left the room, and rent from t