Now it is cooler I ramble about more, but my loneliness goes everywhere with me.  Everything is so still here, that it sometimes makes me afraid.  The moonlight looks awfully solemn on the dark pines.  You remember that dead pine-tree?  The wind has broken it, and there it stands in front of the evergreen grove, with two arms spread out, and a knot like a head with a hat on it, and a streamer of moss hanging from it.  It looks so white and strange in the moonlight, that it seems as if Floracita’s spirit were beckoning to me.

“But I didn’t mean to write about sad things.  I don’t feel sad now; I was only telling you how lonely and nervous I had been, that you might imagine how much good it has done me to see such kind arrangements at Magnolia Lawn.  Forgive me for going there, contrary to your orders.  I did so long for a little variety!  I couldn’t have dreamed you were planning such a pleasant surprise for me.  Sha’n’t we be happy there, calling one another all the old foolish pet names?  Dear, good Gerald, I shall never again have any ungrateful doubts of your love.

“Adios, luz de mes ojos.  Come soon to

“Your grateful and loving

“ROSA.”

That evening the plash of the waves no longer seemed like a requiem over her lost sister; the moonlight gave poetic beauty to the pines; and even the blasted tree, with its waving streamer of moss, seemed only another picturesque feature in the landscape; so truly does Nature give us back a reflection of our souls.

She waked from a refreshing sleep with a consciousness of happiness unknown for a long time.  When Tom came to say he was going to Savannah, she commissioned him to go to the store where her dresses were usually ordered, and buy some fine French merino.  She gave him very minute directions, accompanied with a bird-of-paradise pattern.  “That is Gerald’s favorite color,” she said to herself.  “I will embroider it with white floss-silk, and tie it with white silk cord and tassels.  The first time we breakfast together at Magnolia Lawn I will wear it, fastened at the throat with that pretty little knot of silver filigree he gave me on my birthday.  Then I shall look as bridal as the home he is preparing for me.”

The embroidery of this dress furnished pleasant occupation for many days.  When it was half finished, she tried it on before the mirror, and smiled to see how becoming was the effect.  She queried whether Gerald would like one or two of Madame Guirlande’s pale amber-colored artificial nasturtiums in her hair.  She placed them coquettishly by the side of her head for a moment, and laid them down, saying to herself:  “No; too much dress for the morning.  He will like better the plain braids of my hair with the curls falling over them.”  As she sat, hour after hour, embroidering the dress which was expected to produce such a sensation, Tulee’s heart was gladdened by hearing her sing almost continually.  “Bless her dear heart!” exclaimed she; “that sounds like the old times.”