Alfred stood like one enchanted.  He feared to speak or move, lest the fairy should vanish from mortal presence.  So the child and the dog, equally unconscious of a witness, continued their graceful gambols for several minutes.  An older man might have inwardly moralized on the folly of the animal, aping humanity in thus earnestly striving after what would yield no nourishment when obtained.  But Alfred was too young and too happy to moralize.  The present moment was all-sufficient for him, and stood still there in its fulness, unconnected with past or future.  This might have lasted long, had not the child been attracted by the dove-shadows, and, looking up to watch the flight of the birds, her eyes encountered the young man.  A whole heart full of sunshine was in the smile with which he greeted her.  But, with a startled look, she turned quickly and ran away; and the dog, still full of frolic, went bounding by her side.  As Alfred tried to pursue them, a bough knocked off his hat.  Without stopping to regain it, he sprang over a holly-hedge, and came in view of the veranda of a house, just in time to see the fairy and her dog disappear behind a trellis covered with the evergreen foliage of the Cherokee rose.  Conscious of the impropriety of pursuing her farther, he paused to take breath.  As he passed his hand through his hair, tossed into masses by running against the wind, he heard a voice from the veranda exclaim,—­

“Whither so fast, Loo Loo?  Come here, Loo Loo!”

Glancing upward, he saw a patrician-looking gentleman, in a handsome morning-gown, of Oriental fashion, and slippers richly embroidered.  He was reclining on a lounge, with wreaths of smoke floating before him; but seeing the stranger, he rose, and taking the amber-tubed cigar from his mouth, he said, half laughing,—­

“You seem to be in hot haste, Sir.  Pray, what have you been hunting?”

Alfred also laughed, as he replied,—­

“I have been chasing a charming little girl, who would not be caught.  Perhaps she was your daughter, Sir?”

“She is my daughter,” rejoined the gentleman.  “A pretty little witch, is she not?  Will you walk in, Sir?”

Alfred thanked him, and said that he was in search of a Mr. Duncan, whose residence was in that neighborhood.

“I am Mr. Duncan,” replied the patrician.  “Jack, go and fetch the gentleman’s hat, and bring cigars.”

A negro obeyed his orders, and, after smoking awhile on the veranda, the two gentlemen walked round the grounds.

Once when they approached the house, they heard the pattering of little feet, and Mr. Duncan called out, with tones of fondness,—­

“Come here, Loo Loo!  Come, darling, and see the gentleman who has been running after you!”

But the shy little fairy ran all the faster, and Alfred saw nothing but the long red ribbons of her gypsy hat, as they floated behind her on the wind.