great sun-ball, as it descended toward the sea. Soon its rim
touched the waters, just in rear of a ship which had appeared on
the horizon, until, by degrees, it was swallowed up by the ocean.
We watched it plunge, diminish, and finally disappear.

"Miss Harriet contemplated with passionate regard the last
glimmer of the flaming orb of day.

"She muttered: 'Oh! I love--I love--' I saw a tear start in her
eye. She continued: 'I wish I were a little bird, so that I could
mount up into the firmament.'

"She remained standing as I had often before seen her, perched on
the river bank, her face as red as her flaming shawl. I should
have liked to have sketched her in my album. It would have been
an ecstatic caricature. I turned my face away from her so as to
be able to laugh.

"I then spoke to her of painting, as I would have done to a
fellow-artist, using the technical terms common among the
devotees of the profession. She listened attentively to me,
eagerly seeking to divine the sense of the obscure words, so as
to penetrate my thoughts. From time to time, she would exclaim:
'Oh! I understand, I understand. This is very interesting.' We
returned home.

"The next day, on seeing me, she approached me eagerly, holding
out her hand; and we became firm friends immediately.

"She was a brave creature, with an elastic sort of a soul, which