and, I should say, with plenty of the rash
courage of ignorance, can't help riding well."

"Thank you for nothing, Mr. Stewart,"
she answered, dropping him a deep courtesy.

"Did Mr. Stewart stay long after I went
to bed?" Myrrha asked next morning, with
assumed carelessness.

"About five minutes."

"Aunt Daisy, if you think the question
impertinent, I hope you'll forgive me for
asking it: are you engaged to Mr. Stewart?"

"No, Myrrha." Poor Daisy blushed
painfully.

"You seem so very intimate, and he
seems so perfectly at home in your house,
it was a natural question to ask, Aunt
Daisy."

"We are very old friends."

"I conclude he hasn't a wife, or he
wouldn't be so free to come and go."

"He has no wife."

"Is he a widower?"

"I have never heard of his having
married."

"And he is not your lover, only your
friend, you think?"

To this Daisy made no answer; she
thought the girl impertinent. But Myrrha
had not done, and was not to be repressed
by Daisy's grave silence.

"Aunt Daisy, he is more than your
friend." She spoke with her worldly-wise
look. "Indeed, I do believe there is no
such thing as 'only friendship' possible
between an unmarried man and an
unmarried woman. And, indeed, why should
there be only friendship? Why, for instance,
should you two, who are such good
friends, not marry? Possibly Mr. Stewart
is not quite as good a match as you once
hoped to make, Aunt Daisy; but we don't
keep young for ever. When I am as old
as you are, if I am still single, I shall
seriously set about getting married."

"I do not think of marrying," answered
Daisy, coldly.

"And does Mr. Stewart also not think of
marrying?"

"You must question him on that head
yourself, if your audacity is equal to it."

"I will, perhaps, by-and-bye, when I
know him a little better. This morning I
am going to question him about my
drawing. I think he will admit I have talent
for that."

When Mr. Stewart came, Myrrha, most
prettily got up in a riding-dress, was in the
garden, touching up a sketch of the cottage
she had made the day before yesterday.

"I think I have taken it from the best
point of view, Mr. Stewart. Don't you
think so?" she asked, with winning
humility. "Now, tell me what you really
think."

He had tied his own horse to the garden-
gate, and ordered the other to be led up
and down. He took her sketching-block in
his hands. " Do you, Miss Brown, really
wish to know what I really think? You
said so about your music, and yet I had the
misfortune to offend you."

"Of course I do!" she pouted.

"The point of view is not a bad one, but
the drawing is bad." Then he went on to
show her, bit by bit, how everything was
wrong, light and shade, perspective,
everything; ending by saying, "I should think
you have some facility, but you have had
no teaching, or worse than none. You are
hasty, superficial, consequently untruthful."

"Mr. Stewart, what a terrible pedant
you are! I am wondering," she said, looking
into his face, with an audacious look,
not free from spite, "whether you have
been longest a music-master or a drawing-
master. I am sure you must have been
both."

At that moment the perfectly-appointed
and handsome mare intended for her riding
came in sight: this changed her mood, she
could not aftbrd to quarrel with the
provider of such pleasure as she promised
herself from these rides; so she looked up
into his face again, this time with a look
meant to be bewitchingly sweet, and
asked:

"At any rate, will you be my master?"

"We will see what can be done for you.
If I were your father, or guardian, I would
certainly take care that you had a couple
of years' thorough teaching."

"I have no father, you see, and no
guardian. If you will be so good as to help
me——"

"We will see, we will see. Where is
your aunt?" His eyes had been scanning
the windows.

"I don't know."

"I will go and find her. I have a word
to say to her before we start."

"I dare say you have," muttered Myrrha,
looking after him displeasedly. " To be
neglected for an old maid like Aunt Daisy!
I suppose she has money. Heigho! What
would I not give to be rich!"

Mr. Stewart thought Daisy looking
worried. "Are you tired of her? Does she
weary you?"

"I ought not to mind. She is very
good-natured."