Virgies Inheritance | Page 7

five years, when he
should go away on the morrow.
The two men talked some time longer after Virgie left; the Chi Lu was
called again, the pretty lounge was converted into a comfortable bed,

and Mr. Heath was told that the parlor was at his service for the night.
The young man was very thankful for the hearty hospitality of which he
had been the recipient, and felt that he had been extremely fortunate in
finding such a pleasant abiding-place; but, although he was very weary
from his rough and tedious ride over the mountain, he found that
slumber was hard to woo, and he, too, lay awake for long hours,
wondering over the strange experience of the evening, and what hard
fate--for hard he felt sure it must have been--could have driven a
cultivated gentleman like Mr. Abbot, and his peerless daughter, who
was so well fitted to shine in the most brilliant circles of the world,
away from the haunts of civilization into that wilderness, and among
the rude, uncultured, uncongenial people of a mining region.
Chapter III.
Mr. Heath Talks of Becoming a Miner.

The next morning broke fair and beautiful.
Every trace of the storm had passed away, save that the dust was laid
and all nature looked fresher and brighter for the copious bath it had
received.
Virgie Abbot, despite her sleeplessness during the first half of the night,
was up at an early hour, superintending breakfast for her father and
their guest.
If she had been lovely the previous evening she was doubly so now in
her pretty flannel wrapper--for the mornings were chilly in that region,
even in the summer The wrapper was of a light blue tint, wonderfully
becoming to her delicate complexion, and harmonized well with her
eyes and the dainty pink in her cheeks.
Her face wore a brighter, more eager look, than was its wont, this
morning, and she was full of life and energy that was born of her youth

and sunny, hopeful temperament.
The incidents of the previous evening had been a pleasant break in her
hitherto monotonous life, and she was now looking forward, with no
small degree of interest, to meeting by daylight the handsome stranger
who had taken refuge with them.
During all the years that she had been in that rude place she had not
seen one real gentleman, excepting her father; they had never before
entertained a visitor, and there had been nothing but her reading and
studies, her drawing and fancy work, to vary the quiet, almost dull
uniformity of her existence.
Mr. Abbot himself looked brighter and better as he came out from his
chamber and gave Virgie his usual morning greeting and caress.
This visit had evidently done him good also, and Virgie took "heart of
grace" from the fact, and put aside, for the time at least, the anxious
fears that had so burdened her the night before.
Breakfast was served in the simple but clean and cheerful kitchen
which led from the parlor, while the small table, laid for three, had
almost an air of elegance, with its spotless cloth, its few pieces of silver,
china, and cut glass, relics of former glory, and the tiny vase of flowers,
with the dew and rain still on them, which Virgie had gathered from the
edge of the cliff near by.
Mr. Heath's glance expressed something of surprise as it swiftly took in
these appointments; but to him the fairest sight of all was the slim but
perfect figure of the young girl who sat at the head of the table, and
poured his coffee, and waited upon him with all the ease and
self-possession of one who had been long accustomed to the formalities
and etiquette of high life.
The young man wondered at it. There was no other woman in the house,
nor had been since they came there, for Mr. Abbot had mentioned that
he lost his wife more than six years ago; but this girl was a perfect little
hostess, and dainty, to the last degree, in her person. Her hands were

white and delicate, the pretty pink nails without a blemish; her hair soft
and silken, showing a careful wielding of the brush; her linen collar and
cuffs were immaculate, her handkerchief white as snow, and fine and
sheer, while everything about her bespoke lady-like refinement and a
high regard for nicety of toilet.
He could hardly keep his eyes off her, she was so fair a picture; but
once or twice she had looked up and caught his glance, flushed, and
fearing to embarrass her, he turned resolutely to his host and opened a
subject upon which he had been thinking quite, seriously.
"I understood you to say last evening, I believe, sir, that