"'Perhaps you can tell me,' he said. 'I came here an utter stranger, and I looked all around among the people, and their faces were strange, and it seemed to me that they ever would be strange; but when I saw your face you appeared to belong to me. I think we must be related.' "'I never saw you before,' said Ninon, shaking her head. "'I've seen you in my dreams all my life,' he replied, looking at her so earnestly that the color deepened on her cheek. "'I never heard anything so queer in all my life,' said Ninon. "'You have much to learn,' said the stranger. "'Yes,' said Ninon, humbly; 'as mother says, I'm only a little child.' "'You are not a little child; you are a beautiful maiden, Ninon,' said the stranger, earnestly. "'Nonsense!' she said blushingly. 'I'll never be that.' But she liked to hear him say it, nevertheless," Lottie added with an accent that again brought out a round of applause. "I'm taking too much time," Lottie said, deprecatingly. "Go on, go on," was the unanimous cry; and her little brother Dan, who had dropped nuts and apples and was leaning open-mouthed on her knees, said, "Lottie, if you don't go on, I'll do something dreadful." So Lottie continued: "And the tall stranger smiled down upon her and said, 'Violets are my favorite flower, and you are a modest little violet.' "'Now you are wrong again,' said Ninon; 'violets are a pale blue flower, and my cheeks are burning so oddly--I never had them do so before. I know I look like the peonies in the cure's garden.' "'You look like the sweetest rose in the cure's garden.' "'Is that the way big brothers talk to their little sisters?' "'That is the way I talk to you, and I'm in earnest.' "'How do little sisters treat a brother as big as you are?' "'Well, for one thing, they kiss them.' "'That's queer,' said Ninon, innocently. 'I should think it would be just the other way.' "'Now I think of it, you are right,' and the stranger gave her a kiss that set every nerve tingling. "'How odd!' she exclaimed, half-frightened, half-delighted. 'Pierre sometimes kisses me, but I never felt that way before.' "'And big brothers take their little sisters in their arms and lift them over the rough places, as I do.' "And he carried her over a low stone wall that separated them from a shadowy grove. "'O, how nice!' sighed Ninon, complacently; 'I've always had to get over the rough places by myself before.' "'You will no longer,' said the youth, as they passed under the low branches of a sheltering tree. 'O Ninon, as innocent as beautiful, can you not see that I am not your brother, but your lover?' and he threw himself at her feet.