"Do you care to look, Miss Hallam? I would like for you to see it." He held a little silver case towards her, on which a handsome monogram was heavily engraved. As she touched the spring it flew open, showing an exquisitely painted miniature on ivory. She gave an involuntary cry of delight. "What a beautiful girl," she exclaimed. "It is one of the loveliest faces I ever saw." She scrutinized it carefully, studying it with an artist's evident pleasure. Then she looked up with a smile. "This must be the one Rabbi Barthold spoke to me about," she said. "He said that she was rightly named Esther, for it means star, and her great, dark eyes always made him think of starlight." "How long ago since he told you that?" asked David in surprise. "When we first began taking Hebrew lessons," she answered. "And did he tell you we are bethrothed?" "Yes." David felt annoyed. He knew intuitively why his old friend had departed so from his usual scrupulousness regarding a confidence. He had intimated to David, when he had first met Miss Hallam, that she was an unusually fascinating girl, and he feared that their growing friendship might gradually lessen the young man's interest in Esther, whom he saw only at long intervals, as she lived in a distant city. "I had hoped to have the pleasure of telling you myself," said David. "I have often wondered what she is like," answered Bethany, "and I am glad to have this opportunity of offering my congratulations. I wish that she lived here that I might make her acquaintance. I do not know when I have seen a face that has captivated me so." "Thank you," replied David, flushing with pleasure. A tender smile lighted his eyes as he glanced at the miniature again before closing the case. "She will come to Hillhollow in the spring," he added proudly. They heard Mr. Edmunds's voice in the hall. Bethany held out her hand. "I shall not see you again until next week, I suppose," she said, "so let me wish you a very happy Christmas." He kept her hand in his an instant as he repeated her greeting, then, looking earnestly down into the upturned face, added gently in Hebrew, the old benediction--"Peace be upon you." It was quite dark when she stepped out into the streets. She thought of David and Esther all the way home. At first she thought of them with a tender smile curving her lips, as she entered unselfishly into the happiness of the little romance she had discovered. Then she thought of them with tears in her eyes and a chill in her heart, as some little waif might stand shivering on the outside of a window, looking in on a happy scene, whose warmth and comfort he could not share. The joy of her own betrothal, and the desolation that ended it, surged back over her so overwhelmingly that she was in no mood for merry-making when she reached home.