CHAPTER I.


_FALLING IN LOVE_.

[Illustration: LILLIE.]

"Who _is_ that beautiful creature?" said John Seymour, as a light,
sylph-like form tripped up the steps of the veranda of the hotel where
he was lounging away his summer vacation.

"That! Why, don't you know, man? That is the celebrated, the divine
Lillie Ellis, the most adroit 'fisher of men' that has been seen in
our days."

"By George, but she's pretty, though!" said John, following with
enchanted eyes the distant motions of the sylphide.

The vision that he saw was of a delicate little fairy form; a
complexion of pearly white, with a cheek of the hue of a pink shell;
a fair, sweet, infantine face surrounded by a fleecy radiance of soft
golden hair. The vision appeared to float in some white gauzy robes;
and, when she spoke or smiled, what an innocent, fresh, untouched,
unspoiled look there was upon the face! John gazed, and thought of all
sorts of poetical similes: of a "daisy just wet with morning dew;" of
a "violet by a mossy stone;" in short, of all the things that poets
have made and provided for the use of young gentlemen in the way of
falling in love.