"She is not our young lady," answered the servant; "we have nobody in the house just now, but Mr. and Mrs. Fogerty, and Mrs. Fogerty's brother, the old geologist." "Where did she come from?" inquired the Doctor. "I never saw her before," said the servant, "and I certainly should remember. There's some foreign folks live down in the cottage, by the railroad; but they are not the like of her!" The Doctor got into his chaise again, bewildered. "My child," he said, "you must tell me where you came from." "Oh, don't let me go back again!" said Isabella, clasping her hands imploringly. "Think how hard it must be never to take a move of one's own! to know how the game might be won, then see it lost through folly! Oh, that last game, lost through utter weakness! There was that one move! Why did he not push me down to the king's row? I might have checkmated the White Prince, shut in by his own castles and pawns,--it would have been a direct checkmate! Think of his folly! he stopped to take the queen's pawn with his bishop, and within one move of a checkmate!" "Quite insane!" repeated the Doctor. "But I must have my breakfast. She seems quiet; I think I can keep her till after breakfast, and then I must try and find where the poor child's friends live. I don't know what Mrs. Lester will think of her." They rode on. Isabella looked timidly round. "You don't quite believe me," she said, at last. "It seems strange to you." "It does," answered the Doctor, "seem very strange." "Not stranger than to me," said Isabella,--"it is so very grand to me! All this motion! Look down at that great field there, not cut up into squares! If I only had my knights and squires there! I would be willing to give her as good a field, too; but I would show her where the true bravery lies. What a place for the castles, just to defend that pass!" The Doctor whipped up his horse. Mrs. Lester was a little surprised at the companion her husband had brought home to breakfast with him. "Who is it?" she whispered. "That I don't know,--I shall have to find out," he answered, a little nervously. "Where is her bonnet?" asked Mrs. Lester; this was the first absence of conventionality she had noticed. "You had better ask her," answered the Doctor. But Mrs. Lester preferred leaving her guest in the parlor while she questioned her husband. She was somewhat disturbed when she found he had nothing more satisfactory to tell her. "An insane girl! and what shall we do with her?" she asked. "After breakfast I will make some inquiries about her," answered the Doctor. "And leave her alone with us? that will never do! You must take her away directly,--at least to the Insane Asylum,--somewhere! What if she should grow wild while you were gone? She might kill us all! I will go in and tell her that she cannot stay here." On returning to the parlor, she found Isabella looking dreamily out of the window. As Mrs. Lester approached, she turned.