So absorbed was she that she was not aware of the approach of any one
until a small but exquisitely arranged bouquet of mountain flowers were
laid upon the seat beside her, and a rich but well remembered voice said:

"Pardon me, Miss Abbot, for intruding upon your solitude, but Chi Lu told
me that Mr. Abbot was resting and could not be disturbed at present, and
that I should find you here."

Virginia sprang to her feet, the tint of the wild rose in her cheeks, her
violet eyes grown black with repressed excitement.

"Mr. Heath?" she cried, her scarlet lips parting in a bewildering smile.

"Yes; forgive me for having startled you so," he said, gently, then adding
with a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. "You were surely in a very brown
study."

"I am afraid I was," she returned, laughing. "But what lovely flowers!"
she continued, taking them up and bending to inhale their fragrance. "How
kind of you to gather them for me."

The young man's eyes lingered about her in a delighted gaze, for she made
the fairest picture imaginable standing there in her soft gray dress with
its collar and cuffs of black velvet, a knot of scarlet ribbon at her
throat, the brilliant flowers in her hands, and a fleecy white shawl
wrapped about her shoulders. Her shining hair was gathered into a satiny
brown coil at the back of her head and pinned with a silver arrow, while a
few naturally curling locks lay lightly on her forehead. The dark,
moss-grown rock was behind her; the softly waving plumy boughs of the
pine tree above her, a carpet of tender green beneath her feet.