through the window, and saw a girl, apparently about thirteen, engaged, with all the earnestness with which childhood follows its pursuits, in placing flowers in divers vases. It was evident no small share of taste and industry was be stowed on the task; their entrance, however, interrupted the progress of some scarlet geranium towards some myrtle—the child started—and her first intention of a rapid flight was evidently only checked by natural politeness—or, rather, that inherent kindness, out of which cultivation afterwards extracts the most graceful courtesy. Shyness is too much a mere impulse in very early youth to be lasting; and reserve was lost in the dismay of the intelligence that her father was returning before she had finished the decoration of his room, with which she meant to surprise him. Nothing like a little trouble for the beginning of acquaintance—assistance was readily offered, and as readily accepted—and all the vases were in their places, and Helen not a little delighted with her new friends; when the rest of the party made their appearance.
Dinner had been ordered at once; and luncheon (that cruel destruction of our best feelings, as the Ettrick Shepherd calls it,)
