tures that were prophetic of beauty, and his limbs
that were a miracle of elasticity.

By and by, they settled down to talk and Honor was told of the Padre's
approaching visit. "Mrs. Fox thinks we should ask him to put up with us
this time, or he might be offended," she explained. "Will your mother
mind?"

"Mind? she'll be only too glad, for in private life the old man is a
terrible bore! he tells the same joke over and over again, and Mother
says she is determined not to laugh the next time. There ought to be
some way of choking off stale jokes, don't you think, without offending
the poor dear?"

"Tell him one of his own. I am sure it will make such an impression that
he'll never forget it."

"He's so polite, that he'll laugh heartily as though he'd never heard it
in his life!"

"What a hopeless person! However, I shall be glad to save your mother
from nervous prostration," said Joyce.

"Mrs. Fox always gets news in advance of everyone else," said Honor. "I
wonder how she does it?"

"She says she hears a lot--Ray says, servants carry news about the
District as fast as telegrams."

"I hate to think that she takes the liberty of dropping in upon you
whenever she likes. She's not a safe person, so I hope you are careful
of what you tell her."

"Generally, it is she who does the telling, and I the listening."

"It won't do you any good, what she has to say!"

"It won't do me harm. I heard from her today, that you had been bitten
by a snake while I was in camp. How too terrible!--oh, Honey, how
frightened you must have been!" In emotional moments, Joyce called her
friend by her family pet-name.

"I was dreadfully frightened--afterwards," said Honor, shuddering
violently.

"And you never told me!"

"I could not write about it," said the girl with a sudden gravity that
ennobled her face. "I don't like talking about it; it was a bad shock."

"Tell me this once, and we shan't speak of it again," Joyce pleaded.

She thought Honor's a beautiful face, though it had no actual claim to
beauty apart from the brown eyes that were so frank and steadfast, and
her regular teeth. The eyes were arresting in their depth of shade and
power of expression, with dark lashes of unusual thickness; but for the
rest, her complexion was tanned by reckless exposure to the sun, her
nose had a saucy tendency, and her mouth, though shapely, was not by any
means a rosebud; indeed, she had a wide smile which was readily excused
for t