reserved.]




CHAPTER III.

IDLESSE.


"Don't move your head, Elizabeth, keep it in that position a little
longer," said Katie Archdale, as she and her friend sat together the
morning after the sail. "I wish an artist were here to paint you so;
you've no idea how striking you are."

"No, I have not," laughed the other, forgetting to keep still as she
spoke, and turning the face that had been toward the window full upon
her companion. The scene that Elizabeth's eyes had been dwelling upon
was worthy of admiration; her enthusiasm had not escaped her in any
word, but her eyes were enraptured with it, and her whole face, warmed
with faint reflection of the inward glow, was beautiful with youth, and
thought, and feeling.

"Now you've spoilt it," cried Katie, "now you are merely a nice-looking
young lady; you were beautiful before, perfectly beautiful, like a
picture that one can look at, and look at, and go away filled with, and
come back to, and never tire of. The people that see you so worship you,
but then, nobody has a chance to do it. You just sit and don't say much
except once in a while when you wake up, then you are brilliant, but
never tender, as you know how to be. You give people an impression that