see that there was
some one standing in the shade, and she knew that he was waiting for
her. She had never seen him before, yet she knew him well and hurried
to meet him; and he took her in his arms and kissed her, and his
kisses thrilled her with a thrill that remained with her for many a
day.

She got up the moment she awoke, and looked about her in a kind of
amaze, for everything she saw was transfigured. It was in herself,
however, that the light burned which made the world so radiant. As the
old apple-trees, warmed by the sun, suddenly blossomed into bridal
beauty in the spring, so, in the silent night, between sundown and
day-dawn, while she slept, yet another petal of her own manifold
nature had unfolded, and in the glow of its loveliness there was
nothing of commonplace aspect; for a new joy in life was hers which
helped her to discover in all things a hitherto unsuspected charm.

Beth's little life had been full of childish irregularities, the
little duties being continually slurred and neglected that the little
pleasures might be indulged in the sooner. She was apt to regard
bathing, hair-brushing, dressing, and lessons as mere hindrances to
some of the particular great businesses of life which specially
occupied her--verse-making, for instance, piano-playing, poaching, or
praying, whichever happened to be the predominant interest of the
moment. But now, on a sudden, the care of her person became of
extraordinary importance. All the hints, good and bad, she had had on
the subject recurred to her, and she began to put them into practice
systematically. She threw the clothes back from her bed to air it the
moment she got up, that it might be fresh and sweet to sleep in. Her
little bath had hitherto been used somewhat irregularly, but now she
fetched hot and cold water for herself, and bathed every day. She
brushed her hair glossy, and tightened her stays to make her waist
small, and she was sorely dissatisfied because her boots did not pinch
her feet. She began to take great care of her hands too, and would do
no dusting without gloves on, or dirty work of any kind that was
calculated to injure them. She used a parasol when she could, and if
she got sunburnt bathing or boating, she washed her face in buttermilk
at night, fetched from Fairholm regularly for the purpose. The minds
and habits of the young are apt to form themselves in this way out of
suggestions let fall by all kinds of people, the worst and mos