be a flower garden in the summer, and though he missed his little wife
sadly and longed so much at times for a sight of her beautiful face and
the sound of her sweet voice, he put all thought of himself aside and
said he would not bring her back until the May flowers were in blossom
and the young grass bright and green by the blue room door.

"She will have a better impression of her new home then," he said to
Fan; "and I want her to be happy here and not feel the change too
keenly."

Julia Hamilton chanced those days to be in town, and as she was very
intimate with Miss Thornton the two were a great deal together, and it
thus came about that Julia was often at the brown cottage and helped to
settle the blue room for Daisy.

"If it were only you who was to occupy it," Frances said to her one
morning when they had been reading together for an hour or more in the
room they both thought so pleasant. "I like Daisy, but somehow she seems
so far from me. Why, there's not a sentiment in common between us."

Then, as if sorry for having said so much, she spoke of Daisy's
marvelous beauty and winning ways, and hoped Julia would know and love
her ere long, and possibly do her good.

It so happened that Guy was sometimes present at these readings,
enjoying them so much that there insensibly crept into his heart a wish
that Daisy was more like the Boston girl whom he had mentally termed
strong-minded.

"And in time, perhaps, she may be," he thought. "I mean to have Julia