Brownie's triumph

by Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

They lifted her into the carriage, shut the door, and drove away.

“Brownie Douglas—the name is as sweet as she looks—good-by, my Brownie; we shall meet again,” he murmured; and, with a deep tenderness in his heart for her Adrian Dredmond went his own way.

From Liverpool, the Coolidges, after a few days of rest went to London, where they proposed establishing their headquarters for three or four months, while they made excursions about the country.

Here they took a house in the neighborhood of Regent’s Park, and, to Isabel’s delight, entered at once upon the gayeties of the season.

Brownie’s heart is stirred with various emotions as she finds herself thus settled among the very scenes of her aunt’s former life.

Here Miss Mehetabel lived when she was a girl; here she was wooed and won; here she had lived that short, bright year, loving and beloved, and which was followed by a lifetime of mourning and sadness.

She wondered if Lord Dunforth were still living, and if it would be her lot while abroad to meet him. She hoped so; and she was confident that she should recognize him, from the picture which was now in her possession, even though so many years had passed, and he was an old man of over sixty.

Of course, she never expected to meet him as an equal, or even speak to him; but she longed for just one look into his face, to see if he had fulfilled the promise of his early manhood, and to assure herself that he was the noble, high-minded knight which her little romantic heart had pictured him from Miss Mehetabel’s description.

During the first hours of the day Miss Douglas and her pupils dived deep into the mystic lore; and so charming did she make their studies, and so interested did she appear in everything pertaining to their welfare, that, to their credit be it said, they applied themselves with the utmost diligence to their tasks, and soon gave promise of becoming quite proficient.

The afternoons were devoted to sightseeing and riding, the evenings to receiving company, attending drawing-rooms, the opera, or the theatre.