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This was Mrs Arnot's return for the sirlhood's friend

He bowed his head, and after a ht I thank you"

"Now you areup "But come; let us join the others, for they seem to have hit upon a very mirthful and animated discussion"

Laura's eye and sympathies took theenial and netic influences which she seeh naturally and deeply interested in his intervieith Mrs Arnot, Haldane's eyes and thoughts had been drawn frequently and irresistibly to the object of his old-time passion She was, indeed, very different froht in for lily of a wo that she must always have a manly support of some kind near at hand Still less had she becoirl who captures and a froid of a sportive kitten that carefully keeps a hapless mouse within reach of her velvet paw The pale and saint-like i enshrined within his heart, and which had been created by her devotion to her mother, also faded utterly away in the presence of the reality before him She was a veritable flesh-and-blood woman, with the hue of health upon her cheek, and the charracefulnot only all that he had seen, but all that he had iined

Thus far he had not attained a moral and intellectual culture which enabled him even to idealize so beautiful and perfect a creature She was not a saint in the inative sense of the word, but, as a queen reigning by the divine right of her surpassing loveliness and grace in even Hillaton's exclusive society, she was practically as far re only in a painter's haunted iination

Nature had dowered Laura Roraces of both person and mind; but many others are equally favored Her indescribable charm arose from the fact that she was very receptive in her disposition She had been wax to receive, but marble to retain Therefore, since she had always lived and breathed in an atmosphere of culture, refinement, and Christian faith, her character had the exquisite beauty and fragrance which belongs to a rare flower to which all the conditions of perfect developht of her eye was serene, and her laugh as clear and natural as the fall of water, there was a na which indicated that her happy, healthful nature rested against a dark background of sorrow and trial, and was made the richer and more perfect thereby