bush; the sun had scarcely warmed the air; the insects had not yet come forth; and the birds overhead were chattering with anxious expectation of something to eat. From their high perches they could survey a broad landscape that seemed to melt away into the light undissipated mists that still slumbered upon the far horizon. The sky was clear and blue, yet tinged with dull grey in the cold west; but in the east it was a haze of golden glamour in the midst of which shone the glorious sun.
Stella sat on a wooded hillside, upon a huge trunk that lay where, years before, it had fallen, cast down by lightning, the traces of which were still visible upon it. At her feet grew pale primroses, some of which she stooped and plucked, only to pull them to pieces when she had them in her white hands.
"He is to meet me here this morning," she said to herself, but half aloud; "and I know what he wants to say to me; yet I do not know what to say to him. Father Paul tells me that I must consider him
