"Y-e-s," she said, with her slow Colonial drawl; "I'm so glad."

We stood looking at each other.

Then they came in and swept us away to dance. All the evening we did not
come near to each other. Only once, as she passed, she smiled at me.

The next morning I left the town.

I never saw her again.

Years afterwards I heard she had married and gone to America; it may or may
not be so--but the rose--the rose is in the box still! When my faith in
woman grows dim, and it seems that for want of love and magnanimity she can
play no part in any future heaven; then the scent of that small withered
thing comes back:--spring cannot fail us.

Matjesfontein,
South Africa.



III. "THE POLICY IN FAVOUR OF PROTECTION--".

Was it Right?--Was it Wrong?

A woman sat at her desk in the corner of a room; behind her a fire burnt
brightly.