kind of mystery about her birth."

"How is that? Her uncle, Captain Sedgewick, seems to be a gentleman."

"Captain Sedgewick is very well, but he is not her uncle; he adopted her
when she was a very little girl."

"But who are her people, and how did she fall into his hands?"

"I have never heard that. He is not very fond of talking about the
subject. When we first came to know them, he told us that Marian was only
his adopted niece; and he has never told us any more than that."

"She is the daughter of some friend, I suppose. They seem very much
attached to each other."

"Yes, she is very fond of him, and he of her. She is an amiable girl; I
have nothing to say against her--but----"

"But what, Belle?"

"I shouldn't like you to fall in love with her."

"But I should, mamma!" cried the damsel in scarlet stockings, who had
absorbed every word of the foregoing conversation. "I should like uncle
Gil to love Marian just as I love her. She is the dearest girl in the
world. When we had a juvenile party last winter, it was Marian who
dressed the Christmas-tree--every bit; and she played the piano for us
all the evening, didn't she, mamma?"