at greater ease by the comprehensive and forgiving smile the woman
gave me, as I yielded her my place, and, with lifted hat, awaited
her further kindness.

"I came just in time, sir," she said, half laughingly, as with
strong, bare arms she reached across the gurgling trough and
replaced the lid that I had partially removed.--"I came just in
time, I see, to prevent father from having you dip into the
'morning's-milk,' which, of course, has scarcely a veil of cream
over the face of it as yet. But men, as you are doubtless willing
to admit," she went on jocularly, "don't know about these things.
You must pardon father, as much for his well-meaning ignorance of
such matters, as for this cup of cream, which I am sure you will
better relish."

She arose, still smiling, with her eyes turned frankly on my own.
And I must be excused when I confess that as I bowed my thanks,
taking the proffered cup and lifting it to my lips, I stared with
an uncommon interest and pleasure at the donor's face.

She was a woman of certainly not less than forty years of age. But
the figure, and the rounded grace and fulness of it, together with
the features and the eyes, completed as fine a specimen of
physical and mental health as ever it has been my fortune to meet;
there was something so full of purpose and resolve--something so
wholesome, too, about the character--something so womanly--I might
almost say manly, and would, but for the petty prejudice maybe
occasioned by the trivial fact of a locket having dropped from her
bosom as she knelt; and that trinket still dangles in my memory
even as it then dangled and dropped back to its concealment in her