, mayhap,
of a southern sun, and the eyes were large and lustrous, yet there was
a something unfathomable in their depths, which made one doubt if they
were truly the index of the soul, and might not be made to assume
whatever expression the mind within willed. At present, however, they
were filled only with deep admiration mingled with surprise, while
around the mouth, which, in repose, wore a slightly scornful curve,
there played a frank and winning smile, as, advancing with a quiet
courtesy that at once bespoke him a man of the world, despite slouched
hat and hunting-frock, the intruder upon our heroine's solitude
exclaimed, with half-earnest, half-jesting gallantry, "Prithee, fair
woodland nymph, suffer a lone knight, who has wandered to the confines
of a Paradise unawares, to bow the knee in thy service, and as
atonement meet for venturing unbidden into thy hidden sanctum, to
proffer thee the homage of his loyal heart!"

Fanny was but a simple country maiden, all unskilled in the light and
graceful nothings which form the substance of worldly converse, and so
the warm, rich crimson crept into her cheek,

"The color which his gaze had thrown
Upon a cheek else pale and fair,
As lilies in the summer air."

and the wee foot forthwith commenced beating a tatoo upon the heads of
the unoffending flowers around, who breathed forth their perfumed
sighs in mute reproachfulness; but she was still a woman, and so with
all a woman's ready tact she replied, though with the flush deepening
on her cheek, and a scarce-perceptible tremor in her voice,

"Indeed, sir stranger, since thou hast given me such unwonted power, I
must first use my sceptre of command in banishing all intruders into
my august presence, and invaders of this 'hidden sanctum,' which is
held sacred to mine own idle feet alone!"

And there was a merry look of mischievous meaning stealing in and out
of those bright eyes as they were for a moment uplifted to the face of
the stranger, and then again were shadowed by the drooping lid.
Whether it was that said "intruder" detected a something in the tone
or the demure glance of the fair girl which contradicted the words she
spoke, or whether that very glance transfixed him to the spot, history
telleth not, but stay he did; and if his tarrying was very _heart_ily
objected to by his companion, if the words which fell from his lip in
utterance how musical, for the space of two fastly-fleeting hours,
we