fairness. Surely, thought Jack, there could be no maiden on earth more beautiful or more unconscious of her loveliness than this sweet Primrose of the valley, who had been so strangely and mysteriously wafted by unknown winds into his garden, that under his care she might attain such perfection! So once more the young girl took up the threads of her old life, her rambles by the riverside, and frequent visits to the little church on the hilltop, and her studies in the old library at Cwmfelin, not forgetting much poring over the history of King Arthur and his knights, who played so great a part in her imagination, nor her dreams of Sir Galahad, the ideal hero of a pure maiden's thoughts. And since the mysterious world of love must needs unfold itself to her in some form or other, for good or ill, it was well for a maiden so curiously circumstanced as she was that her mind should be filled with so high an ideal of masculine perfections, and thus dwell so far above the coarse admiration of the country-folk that their vain compliments passed unheeded. For by this time there would come many young strangers across the bridge on a summer's evening, paying toll ungrudgingly for the sake of but one glimpse of the old boatman's beautiful foster-daughter, who might chance to be walking along the banks, or sitting with her book in some shady nook by the water's edge. And though fair Shanno noticed none of them even by so much as the lifting of an eyelid, hearing but the tramp of some sturdy young miller over the footway, or the rough tones of some worthy young farmer who must needs cross the bridge to talk of the crops with a friend in the hamlet, yet Jack received their toll with but a surly countenance, and did they linger to talk of the weather, casting meanwhile curious glances along the riverside, he would threaten sudden rain and storms, and counsel them to hurry on to their friends an they would not get a sorry wetting. These young men, however, would brave much for one sight of Primrose's shining eyes and golden locks, and though she took no heed of them, Jack thought it prudent to discourse to her much in private upon the vanity of mere earthly beauty, ever holding up as a warning his own lost daughter, to whose light-hearted folly and vanity of spirit he attributed her tragic fate, blaming himself greatly that her exceeding beauty had led him to spoil her overmuch, and neglect that care for her soul for which he was responsible.