Part 42 (2/2)

My new friend could not disguise her surprise I almost fancied I traced a flush of embarrassment on her cheeks

”No!” was all she said, and she said it ever so quietly

”I have a pupil colish Gra for it The book I desired to start her in with has only arrived She would be terribly disappointed if I were now to postpone that lesson”

”Your pupil is a lady?”

”Yes!--a sweet little girl called Rita Clark, who lives at the ranch at the other side of the Crescent She comes here often You must have noticed her”

”What!--that pretty, olive-skinned girl, with the dark hair and dark eyes?

”Yes! I have noticed her and I have never since ceased to envy her coive all I have to look as she does

”You are most fortunate in your choice of a pupil?”

”Yes! Rita is a good-hearted little girl,” I lauded unthinkingly

”I spoke to her once out on the Island,” said Miss Grant, ”but she seemed shy She looked me over from head to heel, then ran off without a word

”Well,--Mr Bres are much alike to so?”

”I shall bethe boyish eagerness I felt, ”if----?”

”If?” she inquired

”If you will return the co in the boat to the end of Rita's Isle there, where the sea trout are,--or away out to the passage by The Ghoul where the sal very often and with the patience of Job, yet not once have I seen you bring ho in twenty or thirty trout in less than an hour, any time she has a fancy to

”I should like to break your bad luck, for I think the trouble can only be with the tackle you use”

Mary Grant's brown eyes danced with pleasure, and in the laht, I noticed for the first time, how very fair her skin was,--creaot at it, but without a blemish, without even a freckle, and this despite the fact that she seldoainst the depredations of Old Sol

”I shall be glad indeed You are very kind; for what you propose will be a treat of treats, especially if we catch some fish”

She held out her hand to h h e sensation I had never before experienced I gazed at her without speaking

She raised her eyes and mine held hers for the briefest of moments

Toswept away and I were looking into eyes I had known through all the ages

Then her golden lashes dropped and hid those wonderful eyes fro what I did, I raised her hand and touched the back of her fingers with my lips