d of a Greek."

"She has evidently turned the head of a Cyprian," laughed one of his
friends.

"Come, that's putting it too strong," said the man, with a frown.
"I'll affect no airs, though. I'm not a saint, as you all know, but
the aspect of that girl, in her self-forgetful effort, might well make
me wish I were one. She is as good and pure-hearted as the child she
saved. If there had been a flaw in the white marble of her nature she
would have been self-conscious. An angel from heaven couldn't have
been more absorbed in the one impulse to save."

Graydon had approached the group unobserved, and heard these words.
He walked away, smiling, with the thought, "My sentiments, clearly
expressed."

The night was warm, and he saw Miss Wildmere and Arnault going out
for a stroll. Following a half-defined inclination, he bent his steps
toward the lake. The moon was mirrored in its glassy surface, the
place silent and deserted. With slight effort of fancy he called up
the scene again. He saw in the moonlight the fairy form of the
child, and what even others had regarded as the embodiment of human
loveliness and truth bending over it.

"And she was the little ghost that once haunted me," he thought, "and
seemed all eyes and affection. How those eyes used to welcome and turn
to me, as if in some subtle way she drew from me the power to exist at
all. I wish I could follow the processes of her change from the hour
of our parting, and see how I passed from what I was to her to what
I am now. She does not seem to forget or ignore the past. She is not
conventional, and never was; hence, friendship may not mean what it
does to so many of her sex and age--a little moony sentiment blended
with calculation as to a fellow's usefulness. If we could enjoy
something of the good-comradeship that obtains between man and
man, she is the one woman of the world with whom I should covet the
relation. Stella, in herself, is all that I could ask for a wife,
but I don't like her family much better than Henry does. Confound the
father! Why should he so mix his daughter up in his speculation that
she dare not dismiss Arnault at once and follow her heart? If I were
not a good-natured man I wouldn't submit to it. As it is, since I am
sure of the girl, I suppose I should give _paterfamilias_ a chance to
turn himself. She has appealed to me as delicately, yet as openly,
as she can, and has given me to understand by everything except
plain words that s