An Old Man's Darling

onnibel, and many hap

n the sofa in her dressing-room,

her cat-like steps and a deceit

ed wearily, "though your wishes

dropping into an easy-chair and resting her head with i

is rathe

hem-and we thought-mother and I-that you might be well enough to come down into the d

ot deepen under the jealous scrutiny of the watc

that I must remain closely confined to my sofa at least two weeks. And indeed I c

nder the skirt of her warm white wrappe

nearer under prete

n instant she had dexterously slipped it off Bonnibel's finger, and, holding it up, re

like a grieved child's, and q

ot have taken[Pg 35] it off. I never meant for t

sneering laugh-and t

e going to be such a baby over it. It must have been the gift of a l

her tapering third finger, while

" she said, angrily. "I do not suppose it ca

a prettier ring than that soon I should not mind telling you the donor. And by the way," said she, walking to the wind

not like him very well," said the gi

aughing. "Should you have liked him if you

im until he told me he had been an intimate friend of my papa while in the army

e she drew her black brows angrily together. "Alrea

s certainly no longer young-don't you th

because she thought it would please Felise; "he does not see

the entrance of Lucy, Bonnibel's maid. A broad smile lighted

lendidly-bound poems and a rare hot-house bouquet, whose fragrance filled the room, and turn

d. She swept forward and looked

exquisite rose-buds and waxen tube-roses and azalias. The border of the lovely floral tribute was a delica

g

mpliments of the day fr

elise, reading it aloud. "Tha

"He is very kind to remember me to-da

y," Felis

oets-and glanced rapidly through it, but found no writing o

it down and trailing her silken

earing Felise and it pleased her to see what her innocent young mistress never dreamed of-that Mr

with glowing rubies, and a bouquet that was a perfect triumph of the floral art. Its central flower was a white japonica, and sprigs of scarlet salvia blazed around it; but Felise

herself to please her elderly suitor. She had laid aside the more cumbrous appendages of mourning, such as crape and bombazine, and appeared in a handsome black silk, with filmy white laces at throat and wrists. A single spray of the scarlet salvia, carelessly broken and fastened in her dark

art. He was as foolishly in love with Bonnibel's dainty loveliness as any boy of twenty, and through all his brilliant talk to-day his heart was bounding with the thought of her, and he was revolving p

made him shrink from asking Felise even that simple question. He[Pg 37] knew that he had paid her sufficient attention t

but not able to leave her sofa. Doctor Graham th

it will be several weeks before I can see her ag