She led me down a dismal lane, and into a damp, dreadful place, where the streets were all mud and dirt.  ’O, my dress,’ I said, ‘my pure white robe.’  ’No dust and dirt can stain it,’ she replied, ‘walk through that dark street and see.’  I went, and looked back at each step, but my pure white robe was not soiled, and when I returned to her, it was as spotless as ever.  Was it not a lovely dream, and what does it mean, papa?”

“A lesson too deep for your childhood to comprehend, and yet I will some day tell you.  But here comes Miss Vernon, and the bell has rung for breakfast.”

CHAPTER III.

The next day, while Dawn wandered over the hills, her father conversed with Miss Vernon on what to his mind constituted an education.

“I know that all our growth is slow, but I wish to take the right steps if possible in the right direction; I wish my daughter to be wholly, not fractionally developed.  There are certain parts of her nature which I shall trust to no one.  Her daily lessons, a knowledge respecting domestic affairs, a thorough comprehension of the making and cost of wearing apparel, and a due regard to proper attire, I shall trust to you, if you are competent to fill such a position, and I think you are.”

“I have seen so much misery,” he continued, “resulting from the inability of some women to make a home happy, that I have resolved if my child lives to years of maturity, all accomplishments shall give way, if need be, to this one thing, a thorough knowledge of domestic affairs.  Society is so at fault in these matters, and women generally have such false ideas of them, that I despair of reforming any one.  If I can educate my daughter to live, or rather approximate in some degree, to my ideal of a true woman’s life, it is all I can expect.  Are you fond of domestic life, Miss Vernon?”

He turned so abruptly upon her that she feared her hesitation might be taken for a lack of feeling on the subject, and yet she could not bear the thought that one whose ideal was so near her own, did not fully comprehend her upon such a theme; but there was no mistaking her meaning when she replied,—­

“I love home, and all that makes that spot holy.  I only regret that my one-sided labor and my circumstances have kept me from mingling, to any great extent, in its joys and responsibilities.  My ideal life would be to work, study and teach, but as no opportunities for doing so have been presented to me, and having had no home of my own, I have been obliged to work on in my one-sided way, unsatisfying as it has been.”

“It shall be so no more, Miss Vernon.  If you will call my house your home, so long as we harmonize, you shall have an opportunity to realize your wishes, and I will see that your services are well requited.”

She was too full of gratitude to speak, but a tear started from her eye, and Mr. Wyman noticed that she turned aside to brush it away.