Not that she was over intelligent--one of those precociously "smart" young women that, thanks to the female colleges and the "higher culture" are being "developed" in such alarming numbers nowadays.

If she had been such a being, I fancy Master Raymond would have found her less attractive.

Ah, well, after a time perhaps, we of the present day shall have another craze--that of barbarism--in which the "coming woman" shall pride herself mainly upon possessing a strong, healthy and vigorous physical organization, developed within the feminine lines of beauty, and only a reasonable degree of intelligence and "culture." And then I hope we shall see the last of walking female encyclopedias, with thin waists, and sickly and enfeebled bodies; fit to be the mothers only of a rapidly dwindling race, even if they have the wish and power to become mothers at all.
I am not much of a believer in love at first sight, but certainly persons may become very much interested in each other after a few hours' conversation; and so it was in the case before us.

When Ellis Raymond took up his hat, and then lingered minute after minute, as if he could not bring himself to the point of departure, he simply manifested anew to the maiden what his tones and looks had been telling her for an hour, that he admired her very greatly.
"Come soon again," Dulcibel said softly, as the young man managed to open the door at last, and make his final adieu.

"And indeed I shall if you will permit me," was his earnest response.
But some fair reader may ask, "What were these two doing during all the winter, that they had not seen each other ?" I answer that Dulcibel had withdrawn from the village gatherings since the breaking of the engagement with Jethro.