kindly aspect, that (such, at least, was the rumor about town) an extra passage of the water-carts was found essential, in order to lay the dust occasioned by so much extra sunshine!

No sooner had he disappeared than Hepzibah grew deadly white, and, staggering towards Phoebe, let her head fall on the young girl’s shoulder.

“O Phoebe!” murmured she, “that man has been the horror of my life! Shall I never, never have the courage, — will my voice never cease from trembling long enough to let me tell him what he is?”

“Is he so very wicked?” asked Phoebe. “Yet his offers were surely kind!”

“Do not speak of them, — he has a heart of iron!” rejoined Hepzibah.