world, but it could not compare with the magnificence around her, and
for a few moments she stood as if transfixed with astonishment.
Durward had been highly amused at her enthusiastic remarks concerning
the grounds, and now noticing her silence, he asked "what was the
matter?"

"Oh, I am half-afraid to speak, lest this beautiful room should prove
an illusion and fade away," said she.

"Is it then so much more beautiful than anything you ever saw
before?" he asked; and she replied, "Oh, yes, far more so," at the
same time giving him a laughable description of her amazement when
she first saw the inside of her uncle's house, and ending by saying,
"But you can imagine it all, for you saw me in the cars, and can
judge pretty well what were my ideas of the world."

Wishing to see if 'Lena would attempt to conceal her former humble
mode of living Durward said, "I have never heard anything concerning
your eastern home and how you lived there--will you please to tell
me?"

"There's nothing to tell which will interest you," answered 'Lena;
but Durward thought there was, and leading her to a sofa, he bade her
commence.

Durward had a peculiar way of making people do what he pleased, and
now at his bidding 'Lena told him of her mountain-home, with its
low-roof, bare walls, and oaken floors--of herself, when, a
bare-footed little girl, she picked _huckleberries_ with _Joel
Slocum_! And then, in lower and more subdued tones, she spoke of her