He must have known heroes and talked with gods to be able to hew out of the rocks such perfection of shape and attitude as his 'David.' Alas! my strength of brain and hand is mere child's play compared to what HAS been done in sculpture, and what WILL yet be done; still, I love the work for its own sake, and I am always trying to render a resemblance of--" Here she broke off abruptly, and a deep blush suffused her cheeks.
Then, looking up suddenly, she took my hand impulsively, and pressed it.
"Be my friend," she said, with a caressing inflection in her rich voice, "I have no friends of my own sex, and I wish to love you.

My brother has always had so much distrust of the companionship of women for me.

You know his theories; and he has always asserted that the sphere of thought in which I have lived all my life is so widely apart from those in which other women exist--that nothing but unhappiness for me could come out of associating us together.

When he told me yesterday that you were coming to see me to-day, I knew he must have discovered something in your nature that was not antipathetic to mine; otherwise he would not have brought you to me.

Do you think you can like me ?--perhaps LOVE me after a little while ?" It would have been a cold heart indeed that would not have responded to such a speech as this, uttered with the pleading prettiness of a loving child.