I am so happy! So happy! No one was ever as happy as I am." Then Ethel took both her hands, and, as they stood together, she looked intently at her friend.

Some new charm transfigured her face; for her dark, gazelle eyes were not more lambent than her cheeks, though in a different way; while her black hair in its picturesquely arranged disorder seemed instinct with life, and hardly to be restrained.

She was constantly pushing it back, caressing or arranging it; and her white, slender fingers, sparkling with jewels, moved among the crimped and wavy locks, as if there was an intelligent sympathy between them.
"How beautiful you are to-day, Dora! Who has worked wonders on you ?" "Basil Stanhope.

He loves me! He loves me! He told me so last night--in the sweetest words that were ever uttered.

I shall never forget one of them--never, as long as I live! Let us sit down.