hills and flowed westward for six miles before it turned south again. Beyond this six-mile sweep of its broad channel loomed the three ranges of the Blue Ridge mountains, the first one dark, rich, distinct, clothed in eternal green, the last one melting in dim lines into the clouds and soft azure of the sky.
As the sun began to sink now behind these distant peaks, each cloud that hung about them burst into a blazing riot of colour. The silver mirror of the river caught their shadows, and the water glowed in sympathy.
As Elsie drank the beauty of the scene, the music of the falls ringing its soft accompaniment, her heart went out in a throb of love and pity for the land and its people.
"Can you blame us for loving such a spot?" said Marion. "It's far more beautiful from the cliff at Lover's Leap. I'll take you there some day. My father used to tell me that this world was Heaven, and that the spirits would all come back to live here when sin and shame and strife were gone."
"Are your father's poems published?" asked Elsie.
"Only in the papers. We have them clipped and pasted in a scrap-book. I'll show you the one about Ben Cameron some day. You met him in Washington, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Elsie, quietly.
"Then I know he made love to you."
"Why?"
"You're so pretty. He couldn't help it."
"Does he make love to every pretty girl?"
"Always. It's his religion. But he does it so beauti-
