There could be no doubt of Miss Blessing's amiable nature. She looked about with a pleasant expression, half smiled—but deprecatingly, as if to say, "Pray, don't be offended!"—at the awkward silence, and then said, in a clear, carefully modulated voice: "It is beautiful to arrive at twilight, but how charming it must be to ride home in the moonlight; so different from our lamps!" The guests looked at each other, but as she had seemed to address no one in particular, so each hesitated, and there was no immediate reply. "But is it not awful, tell me, Elizabeth, when you get into the shadows of the forests? we are so apt to associate all sorts of unknown dangers with forests, you know," she continued. The young lady thus singled out made haste to answer: "O, no! I rather like it, when I have company." Elwood Withers laughed. "To be sure!" he exclaimed; "the shade is full of opportunities." Then there were little shrieks, and some giggling and blushing. Miss Blessing shook her fan warningly at the speaker. "_How_ wicked in you! I hope you will have to ride home alone to-night, after that speech. But you are all courageous, compared with _us_. We are really so restricted in the city, that it's a wonder we have any independence at all. In many ways, we are like children." "O Julia, dear!" protested Anna Warriner, "and _such_ advantages as you have! I shall never forget the day Mrs. Rockaway called—her husband's cashier of the Commercial Bank" (this was said in a parenthesis to the other guests)—"and brought you all the news direct from head-quarters, as she said." "Yes," Miss Blessing answered, slowly, casting down her eyes, "there must be two sides to everything, of course; but how much we miss until we know the country! Really, I quite envy you." Joseph had found himself, almost before he knew it, in a corner, beside Lucy Henderson. He felt soothed and happy, for of all the girls present he liked Lucy best. In the few meetings of the young people which he had attended, he had been drawn towards her by an instinct founded, perhaps, on his shyness and the consciousness of it; for she alone had the power, by a few kindly, simple words, to set him at ease with himself. The straightforward glance of her large brown eyes seemed to reach the self below the troubled surface. However much his ears might have tingled afterwards, as he recalled how frankly and freely he had talked with her, he could only remember the expression of an interest equally frank, upon her face. She never dropped one of those amused side-glances, or uttered one of those pert, satirical remarks, the recollection of which in other girls stung him to the quick.