Spotless and free;
Is there one thing, beloved,
Fairer than thee?"


Mr. Fraser absently set down the tea that Angela was giving him when
we took the liberty to describe her personal appearance.

"Now, Angela, read a little."

"What shall I read?"

"Oh! anything you like; please yourself."

Thus enjoined, she went to a bookshelf, and, taking down two volumes,
handed one to Mr. Fraser, and then, opening her copy at haphazard,
announced the page to her companion, and, sitting down, began to read.

What sound is this, now soft and melodious as the sweep of a summer
gale over a southern sea, and now again like to the distant stamp and
rush and break of the wave of battle? What can it be but the roll of
those magnificent hexameters with which Homer charms a listening
world. And rarely have English lips given them with a juster cadence.

"Stop, my dear, shut up your book; you are as good a Greek scholar as
I can make you. Shut up your book for the last time. Your education,
my dear Angela, is satisfactorily completed. I have succeeded with
you----"

"Completed, Mr. Fraser!" said Angela, open-eyed. "Do you mean to say