hours. "I thought you would rather be together."

"Oh, yes, indeed! You are awfully kind, Cous--Margaret. I haven't seen
Peggy for a year, you know. We missed her awfully at Christmas, of
course, but she had a lovely time here; and it would have been awful if
she had come home and got the measles, wouldn't it?"

"Yes, we did have a very good time. The children were here,--Basil and
Susan D.,--and they and Peggy were fast friends. Oh, yes, it was a
great holiday. Now, dear, you will want to rest a little, so I will
leave you. Peggy will not be here till after lunch, so you will have
time for a good rest, and to explore the garden, too, if you like. I am
going now to arrange my flowers."

"Oh, might I help? I am not a bit tired, and I just love to arrange
flowers. Do let me help, Margaret!"

"Very well," said Margaret, with a little inward sigh. She had her own
ideas, and very definite ones, about the arrangement of flowers, in
which she had exquisite taste; and her recollection of the way in which
Peggy used to squeeze handfuls of blossoms tight into a vase, without
regard to color or form, made her dread the assistance so heartily
proffered; but Jean was quicker than Peggy had been at her age, and one
glance at Margaret's first "effect," a rainbow combination of
sweet-peas, showering over the side of a crystal bowl, filled her with
ambition to emulate its beauty. The morning passed happily and busily,
the more so that Hugh came in presently, with a chapter of Thoreau that
Margaret "really must hear!" He read well, and his taste and Margaret's
being much alike, they spent many pleasant hours together, he reading
aloud, she with her flowers or her work. Jean, who had never heard of
Thoreau, and was not bookish, tried to listen, but did not make much of
it. She fell to meditating instead, and her bright eyes wandered
curiously from one intent face to the other. Hugh never thought of
reading aloud at home. To be sure, he was the only one who cared about
reading, or had time for it. He and Margaret seemed to know each other
very well, seeing what a short time he had been here. Jean, with all the
eager romance of fifteen, straightway began the building of an
air-castle, which seemed to her a fine structure indeed. Meantime, Hugh
and Margaret, all unconscious of her scrutiny, were enjoying themselves
extremely.

"'As polishing expresses the vein in marble and grain in wood, so music
brings out what of heroic lurks anywhe