a child's nature more than positive neglect would do. Having no young companions at home she was perhaps more reserved and thoughtful than she would otherwise have been, but this circumstance did not cast a shadow over her happiness, which she diffused wherever she moved by the magic influence of her presence, the radiance of her inner self.
During one of those lingering twilights that grace the early autumn she had retreated to a favorite grove, where, under the blue canopy of heaven, earth, air and the deep blue river blended in one sweet accord, to swell the rapturous emotion of her own soul and breathe their soothing influences over another, whose stern mental conflicts had of late dimmed for him the brightness of the material as well as the spiritual world. Unconscious of each other's presence, although but a few rods apart, until they accidently exchanged glances as both turned to leave, the momentary impression made upon him was not exactly that of a Puritan maiden, for she was not rigid enough in thought and feeling for that, but of one whose purity of thought and feeling shone through every feature so strikingly as to arrest his attention. Her image remained vivid in his mind, not from any expectation of seeing her again, but for its association with his own peaceful feelings that evening, which contrasted so happily with his previous hours of skepticism and despair. No romance had ever tortured him with its idle dreams, for life had been too stern a reality.
Ho was an Englishman by birth, the youngest son of a wealthy merchant, and had been attracted to
