that time the effect upon one's eyesight is the reverse of beneficial. I
hope your book is not very interesting."

"If you will allow me to finish this story," Clarissa pleaded, scarcely
lifting her eyes from the page. It was not particularly polite, perhaps,
but it gave the stranger an admirable opportunity for remarking the dark
thick lashes, tinged with the faintest gleam of gold, and the perfect curve
of the full white eyelids.

"Upon my soul, she is the loveliest creature I ever saw," he said to
himself; and then asked persistently, "Is the story a long one?"

"Only about half-dozen pages more; O, do please let me finish it!"

"You want to know what becomes of some one, or whom the heroine marries, of
course. Well, to that extent I will be a party to the possible injury of
your sight."

He still sat opposite to her, watching her in the old lazy way, while she
read the last few pages of the magazine story. When she came to the end,
a fact of which he seemed immediately aware, he rose and extinguished the
little reading lamp, with an air of friendly tyranny.

"Merciless, you see," he said, laughing. "O, _la jeunesse_, what a
delicious thing it is! Here have I been tossing and tumbling those
unfortunate books about for a couple of hours at a stretch, without being
able to fix my attention upon a single page; and here are you so profoundly
absorbed in some trivial story, that I daresay you have scarcely been
conscious of the outer world for the last two hours. O, youth and
freshness, what pleasant things they are while we can keep them!"