sun set, Beth. But you must come and look at them. Let's see, to-day's
Saturday. Come early next week; I shall be away over Sunday, you know."

"Yes, you told me so last night."

"Did I tell you of our expected guest?" he asked, after a pause. "Miss
Marie de Vere, the daughter of an old friend of my mother's. Her father
was a Frenchman, an aristocrat, quite wealthy, and Marie is the only
child, an orphan. My mother has asked her here for a few weeks."

"Isn't it a striking name?" said Beth, "Marie de Vere, pretty, too. I
wonder what she will be like."

"I hope you will like her, Beth. She makes her home in Toronto, and it
would be nice if you became friends. You will be a stranger in Toronto,
you know, next winter. How nice it will be to have you there while I am
there, Beth. I can see you quite often then. Only I hate to have you
study so hard."

"Oh, but then it won't hurt my brain, you know. Thoughts of you will
interrupt my studies so often" she said, with a coquettish smile.

Clarence told her some amusing anecdotes of 'Varsity life, then went
away early, as he was going to leave the village for a day or two.

Beth hurried off to the kitchen to help Aunt Prudence. It was unusual
for her to give any attention to housework, but a new interest in
domestic affairs seemed to have aroused within her to-day.

The next day was Sunday, and somehow it seemed unusually sacred to Beth.