“How kind you are, sir!”

Beth blushed like a rose under the friendly look he wore, but she was not frightened now, and gave the hand a grateful squeeze because she had no words to thank him for the precious gift he had given her.  The old gentleman softly stroked the hair off her forehead, and, stooping down, he kissed her, saying, in a tone few people ever heard . . .

“I had a little girl once, with eyes like these.  God bless you, my dear!  Good day, madam.”  And away he went, in a great hurry.

Beth had a rapture with her mother, and then rushed up to impart the glorious news to her family of invalids, as the girls were not home.  How blithely she sang that evening, and how they all laughed at her because she woke Amy in the night by playing the piano on her face in her sleep.  Next day, having seen both the old and young gentleman out of the house, Beth, after two or three retreats, fairly got in at the side door, and made her way as noiselessly as any mouse to the drawing room where her idol stood.  Quite by accident, of course, some pretty, easy music lay on the piano, and with trembling fingers and frequent stops to listen and look about, Beth at last touched the great instrument, and straightway forgot her fear, herself, and everything else but the unspeakable delight which the music gave her, for it was like the voice of a beloved friend.

She stayed till Hannah came to take her home to dinner, but she had no appetite, and could only sit and smile upon everyone in a general state of beatitude.

After that, the little brown hood slipped through the hedge nearly every day, and the great drawing room was haunted by a tuneful spirit that came and went unseen.  She never knew that Mr. Laurence opened his study door to hear the old-fashioned airs he liked.  She never saw Laurie mount guard in the hall to warn the servants away.  She never suspected that the exercise books and new songs which she found in the rack were put there for her especial benefit, and when he talked to her about music at home, she only thought how kind he was to tell things that helped her so much.  So she enjoyed herself heartily, and found, what isn’t always the case, that her granted wish was all she had hoped.  Perhaps it was because she was so grateful for this blessing that a greater was given her.  At any rate she deserved both.

“Mother, I’m going to work Mr. Laurence a pair of slippers.  He is so kind to me, I must thank him, and I don’t know any other way.  Can I do it?” asked Beth, a few weeks after that eventful call of his.

“Yes, dear.  It will please him very much, and be a nice way of thanking him.  The girls will help you about them, and I will pay for the making up,” replied Mrs. March, who took peculiar pleasure in granting Beth’s requests because she so seldom asked anything for herself.