A pony-phaeton, containing two ladies, appeared at the foot of the hill and slowly approached.  His eyes rested on it in languid indifference, but, as it drew nearer, the younger of the two ladies fixed his attention.  Her charming summer costume at first satisfied his taste, and, as her features became distinct, he was surprised at their beauty, as he thought at first; but he soon felt that animation redeemed the face from mere prettiness.  The young girl was talking earnestly, but a sudden movement of the horse caused her to glance toward the road-side, and she encountered the dark eyes of a stranger.  Her words ceased instantly.  A slight frown contracted her brow, and, touching her horse with her whip, she passed on rapidly.

“By Jove!  Strahan is right.  If I have many such countrywomen in the neighborhood, I ought to find amusement.”

He rose and sauntered after the phaeton, and saw that it turned in at a pretty little cottage, embowered in vines and trees.  Making a mental note of the locality, he bent his steps in another direction, laughing as he thought:  “From that one glance I am sure that those blue eyes will kindle more than one fellow before they are quenched.  I wonder if Strahan knows her.  Well, here, perhaps, is a chance for a summer lark.  If Strahan is enamored I’d like to cut him out, for by all the fiends of dulness I must find something to do.”

Strahan had accepted an invitation to lunch at the Vosburghs’ that day, and arrived, hot and flushed, from his second morning’s drill.

“Well!” he exclaimed, “I’ve seen the great Mogul.”

“I believe I have also,” replied Marian.  “Has he not short and slightly curly hair, dark eyes, and an impudent stare?”

“I don’t recognize the ‘stare’ exactly.  Merwyn is polite enough in his way, and confound his way!  But the rest of your description tallies.  Where did you see him?”

She explained.

“That was he, accomplishing his usual day’s work.  O ye dogs of war! how I would like to have him in my squad one of these July days!  Miss Marian, I’d wear your shoe-tie in my cap the rest of my life, if you would humble that fellow and make him feel that he never spoke to a titled lady abroad who had not her equal in some American girl.  It just enrages me to see a New-York man, no better born than myself, putting on such superior and indifferent airs.  If he’d come to me and say, ’Strahan, I’m a rebel, I’m going to fight and kill you if I can,’ I’d shake hands with him as I did not to-day.  I’d treat him like a jolly, square fellow, until we came face to face in a fair fight, and then—­the fortune of war.  As it was, I felt like taking him by the collar and shaking him out of his languid grace.  He told me to mind my own business so politely that I couldn’t take offence, although he gave scarcely any other reason than that he proposed to mind his.  When I met his Southern mother on the piazza, she looked at me in my uniform at first as if I had been a toad.  They are rebels at heart, and yet they stand aloof and sneer at the North, from which they derive protection and revenue.  I made his eyes flash once though,” chuckled the young fellow in conclusion.