"Yes, papa," said Gerty, with a sigh; and then, always sweet and serviceable, she dutifully found them, and her father soon left her to her solitary musings. She looked dreamily out of the open window upon the broad, quiet river, sliding slowly across the white light of the full moon. She then observed a small red light in the next garden, which, indeed, proceeded from a cigar which Arthur was there smoking. He was gazing on the silver calm of the river, upon the wide blue lustre of the still and shining night. Gerty's eyes came down from the heavens, and turned from the moonlit stream to rest upon a tall figure, dim in half light, half shadow, which she knew to be that of the lecturer. "How can he stand there, smoking so quietly, after such an evening?" thought Gerty, half wonderingly, half indignantly. "How I should like to go and ask him about all the things that I want so much to know, about all of which he knows! I should like to thank him too, oh! so very much, for all the beautiful new thoughts which he has given me! He expresses thoughts that I can think but cannot express; he has some thoughts that I can almost think but cannot quite reach to; he has many thoughts quite beyond and above me. How clever he must be! How I should like to know him! How I long to be able to talk freely to him! I must know him. I wonder how he can be so calm after such a triumph, after such excitement. Perhaps he's thinking of Tennyson, of St Agnes and the moonlight. He's something like Launcelot. He looks kind, though rather distant and haughty; but I know he's a gentleman. I shouldn't be afraid of him. I think he would understand me.

He spoke so nobly of good women; all

great men do. He rows every morning after breakfast. I wonder whether papa would ask him here. How different he looked in evening dress!-I had always seen him in boating-clothes. I wonder if he will lecture again? How he understands poetry! Oh, how I should like to know and to talk to such a man!"

And so, threading all her pearls upon one string, the excited, imaginative, lonely little Gerty thought, in quick leaps and throbs of mind, upon the lecture, upon Arthur, upon Tennyson-and upon the best and quickest way of becoming acquainted with Arthur, the thinker and the lecturer.

Arthur had seen Gertrude during the lecture. She sat in one of the front rows of seats just opposite to him, and he could not fail to notice the rapt attention and undisguised delight with which she listened and followed. Excitement heightened the charm of her beauty, and lent additional expression to her speaking features. Being something of a physiologist, Arthur noticed critically the fine shape of the little girl's head. He knew who she was and where she lived, and he began to feel a half-curiosity about his nextdoor neighbour. As he strolled slowly up and down the lawn, he glanced at the open window of "next door," where he saw the shadowy shape of a female figure with the moonlight silvering upon it, and the lamp behind defining the soft shade of the outline. Perhaps it was the still sacred beauty of the midsummer moonlight night, perhaps it was the exaltation of feeling resulting from his recent flight into the lofty regions of poetry, which rendered Arthur's mood of mind somewhat more tender and sentimental than was usual with him. He rarely felt his loneliness, or

disliked being so much alone; but as he gazed dreamily upon the full, bright river, with the little ripples and eddies on its smooth surface, slipping along slowly under the white, soft light—as he looked at the dark shadows of woods and banks, and on the wide azure sky-arch, he felt a soft longing for some loving companionship. He felt, in that hour, too much. alone. And then his thought glanced to the young girl who had just struck upon his observation, and who was sitting there at the open window-so near to him, so still, and so alone. Arthur could tell, by some affinity of sympathy, that she too was lonely, and the idea crossed his mind that if she were to come out into the garden-and he wished she would do so -he would try to conquer his reserve, and to speak to her. But she did not come out. The window was closed and the lamp extinguished. Soon, another light appeared at an upstairs window, and the shadow of the young girl's graceful figure flitted across the blind. Presently that light went out, and the moonbeams shone blankly upon the white windowblind. Arthur, with a sigh, flung away the stump of his cigar. It fell with a little hiss into the water. After watching it for a moment, he walked musingly towards the cottage. His head was bent upon the ground, his hands were thrust into the pockets of his boating-jacket. He muttered, as his steps crunched the gravel

"Ah, poor Laura!"

He went in to bed-musing much upon love, upon the ideal women drawn by poets. He thought a little, too, with a kindly curiosity, upon the eager,

intelligent little maiden, who was asleep so near to him, and who was perhaps then dreaming of her ideal guide, philosopher, and friend. As Arthur flung his tall frame upon the little bed, a slowly moving wrack of cirrus clouds suddenly obscured the moon. The light died quickly out of all the heavens, and shadow fell upon the sleeping earth.

The daily life at Maidsnest lived itself, with but little change or variety, from summer day to day, until Gertrude's will had compassed her wish, and she had been formally introduced to Arthur, who at once became a great favourite with her father. Just at first she was shy, and he was reserved, and they spoke but little to each other; but each was really attracted to the other, and they had so many opportunities of meeting that they soon grew to be good friends. There was no tendency to "lovemaking" on either side. With her brown, bright eyes eagerly fixed upon his, little Gerty poured forth streams of questions, of ejaculations, of fancies; and she found in Arthur all that she had fancied of her hero-friend or critic-companion. Arthur usually saw her first when he started for his morning's row. Sitting in his boat, resting lightly on his sculls, he would remain an hour or more talking to Gerty, who stood or sat upon the sunbright lawn. One morning Arthur was moved to ask if she would like a row. Gerty's eyes lit up with pleasure, but she ran into the house to ask papa. The old gentleman was absorbed in the latest number of the Transactions of the Zoological Society. He consented absently, and then replunged into his scientific bath. Arthur brought his boat under the little wooden steps which descended from Gerty's lawn to the river, and then shouted for Joe to hold

the boat while Miss Hazelwood got in. Joe appeared slowly, whistling sagaciously. Gerty appeared quickly, tripping lightly along the sunny lawn. She was radiant with delight. Joe stooped down, and held the rowlock of the stroke outrigger. He was then impelled to offer advice:

"You must sit steady in this yere boat, Miss; and you mustn't stand up on no account, specially in the lock, or you'll be over as sure as God made little apples. She's a trifle crank for a young lady as doesn't sit her properly-mind.”

Gerty laughed, and promised. Arthur stood up and held out both his hands; Gerty lifted her frock, and the little feet peeped in and out coquettishly as she rapidly descended the steps.

"Hold her tight, Joe," quoth Arthur; "and, Miss Hazelwood, please to step here—just here, right in the middle. That's all right."

Here Gerty gave her two little gloved hands into Arthur's brown, muscular hands, and stepped lightly and deftly, with perfect balance, into the very place into which she ought to have stepped. Arthur sat her down carefully into the sitter's seat, and sat down himself to the sculls. Joe admired and was comforted. They pushed off, and Arthur sculled away lightly, though rowing, as he always did, in perfect form.

Miss Hazelwood had on a crisp, fresh, white muslin dress, confined at the waist by a mauve ribbon. She wore a hat with a drooping mauve plume, and a brown parasol threw a soft shade over her pretty, smiling, flushed, and happy face. She watched Arthur's strong, skilful rowing with great interest. She was animated, gay, happy-charming. She noticed and enjoyed everything. They talked; even