Year: 1873

How swing the acacias in the breeze


How . purple -tinged, the lilacs bloom


And glstening from Magnolia trees,


Wax petaled flowers ope ia nights noon


AID, gnting, down the dale afar.


The mumuring hrOoklet gldes 50 fleet,


While soft DER all the evening star


Shines radiant ON the scene - sweet


MILLER, paraphl ased-


Long rows of tall, stately trees lining
road hard and white as a track Of silver in
the pale moonlight; the perfume Of a
thousand fragrant flowers burdening the
air, and bringing memories Of isles that are
enchanted, where the olive and palm are,
and the fairest Of bloom in the
beauty and glory Of perpetual summer;
afar the white cleaning villa Of some
wealthy and luxurious planter, turreted
and minareted and commanding a view Of
valley, river and dale for miles around.


1t was splendid place, this villa to
which Colonel Adams had brought his
daughter from the wilds Of far-distant Cal
ifornia For period Of three years after
the nan who had pledged his hand to his
daughter had left the place where he had
first welcomed him, he had toiled to
gain competence, had done all that he
could to place himself above the wants of
hfe, and capable Of obtaining its luxuries.
He was not only successful in gaining a
fortune, but he had likewise succeeded in
purchasing in the State of his birth, Nir-
ginia, a splendid villa, to which he had
now repaired with his daughter, Myrtle
Adams.


To see her nov as she stands by her
fathers side, in the pure starlight, gazing
down the road, and in the shadow of the
verandah, one cannot but observe that
time has not only beautiied and intensified
her charms, but has given to her face
beauty which is not so grand as it is pure,
not so ma aiestic as it is winning. The face
is more saddened in its expression than of
yore, yet the eyes are as bright and true,
and the smile is as warm and as fond as
rver, as she stands with her fathers pro-
tecting arm around her, and his loved dear
voice telling her Of the many improve
ments he proposes making in the surround
ings Of and the interior Of the villa.


'We will have all that you are so de-
serving of after your long recluse in the
wilds Of California, the Colonel is saying.
IL am a wealthy man at last, and the very
dearest wish of my life has been that
might give to you the refinements and the
enioyments Of society. We are not to be
alone here, for we can find many friends in
this place, and We can the more keenly en-
Joy the social advantages we now possess
from the very fact that we have 50 long
been so debarred from good society"


''There is no society | desire, replied
Myrtle, sweetly, apart from your own
dear company. | was never fond Of ex
citement | do not care for it now. had
much rather be the recipient OF your kind
ness alone than to see it shared by the men
and women Of the world, who will soon
render person the possessor Of dual ex-
istence the one true, ever hidden self,
and the other false, society self.


Colonel Adams turned the conversation
as he observed that it was beginning to
suggest sad memories to the only child he
possessed. Whenever she conversed in
this strain, he knew that her mind was
fixed upon the one sad memory Of her life,
her love fer Eugene Allerton.


Eugene Allerton


What confused variety of the most
singular thoughts was the Colonel's mind
replete with when he thought of the young
miner who had SO curiously sought his
daughters hand, and written few times
after his departure for the east, and then
silently and as person unmindful OF even
the least Of the required civilities of soci
ETY., had not communicated again with him.
1t was three years since then, but the lapse
of time had not removed from the Colonels
mind the remembrance Of the man whom
he knew his daughter had loved, and did
love even now. She had never referred
to it nor had he, but conviction which
was a true one caused him to believe that
MYRTLE possessed an unalterable and deep
love for the handsome young miner who
had so very mysteriously dropped out Of
their lives, and been SO negligent Of his
vows of constancy.


And Myrtle


She had not sighed and wept, but al
though her true womanly and good nature
had enabled her to bear her sorrow and
give lao sign, she was not without q single
and more than careless thought over her
lover, who had not been acknowledged a.
such, but who had taught her to love him,
and had evinced unmistakable evidence
that he loved her % dearly in return. Nov
he had gone "a few letters and promise