It was new to Ronald. He had heard fashionable ladies speak of
everything they delighted in. He had ever heard of "music in the
fall of rain drops," or character in flowers.

Once Dora forgot her shyness, and when Ronald said something, she
laughed in reply. How sweet and pure that laughter was--like a
soft peal of silver bells! When Ronald Earle went to sleep that
night, the sound haunted his dreams.


Chapter IV

Every morning brought the young heir of Earlescourt to the bright
sunny gardens where Dora worked among the strawberries. As the
days passed she began to lose something of her shy, startled
manner, and laughed and talked to him as she would have done to
her own brother. His vanity was gratified by the sweetest homage
of all, the unconscious, unspoken love and admiration of the
young girl. He liked to watch the blushes on her face, and the
quivering of her lips when she caught the first sound of his
coming footsteps. He liked to watch her dark eyes droop, and
then to see them raised to his with a beautiful, startled light.

Insensibly his own heart became interested. At first he had
merely thought of passing a pleasant hour; then he admired Dora,
and tried to believe that reading to her was an act of pure
benevolence; but, as the days passed on, something stronger and
sweeter attracted him. He began to love her--and she was his
first love.