Page:Orange Grove.djvu/313

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that I had not promised to obey, but it is too late now, and you will have to make the best of it."

"I will introduce you to him, and tell him I have the misfortune to be joined to a very refractory little wife who will have her own way, even to talking upon the science of Astronomy." So with a merry laugh and pulling his curls which was returned by pinching her ear the subject was dropped.

The morning was far advanced ere Rosalind could slumber. The thought of resuming her old pursuits through the enchanting mazes of science, and a rapid survey of the intervening years since she dropped them, with the varied scenes of pain and pleasure they had brought, so filled her mind as to chase the sleep from her pillow. At break of day she fell into an unquiet slumber when she returned in dreams to the happy hours of her childhood and was again a little girl sitting on her father's knee, or coasting down hill with him for a companion. Then came confused images of fireside pleasures, playing with wax dolls, imaginary tea-parties, and calculating eclipses; and lastly, she saw her father an angel seraph beckoning to her to follow him. She essayed to rise but was held back by an invisible power. She opened her eyes and saw Ernest standing over her. He had risen early and taken his accustomed walk, returning to the chamber just in season to see the smile that flitted across her features, and the partial raising of the hand.

"Oh Ernest," said she, "I have had such a beautiful dream!"

Its influence followed her all day, imparting one