ranging in my mind the harangue which I should address to the old man to solicit the hand of his daughter. It was impossible he could refuse it, for I attacked him in his weakest points. I anticipated his objections, and answered them all so triumphantly, that he could resist no longer, and at length went and fetched his enchanting Mimili, and resigned her to my arms. I stood with my face towards the window, and was rehearsing, in an under-tone, the speech by which this effect was to be produced, when a loud laugh behind me all at once snapped the thread of my oration. It was Mimili, who had slipped softly into the room without shoes, and overheard great part of my harangue, though not understood its purport.
The morning air had heightened the bloom of her colour; her blue eyes glistened like two morning-stars, and a nosegay of the sweetest wild flowers adorned her bosom. She presented me a handful of the finest strawberries, which she had just picked, and asked what I had been preaching about so pathetically? I clasped the enchanting creature in my arms, and silently implored the blessing of Heaven on my purpose, concerning which I said not a syllable to her; for, confident as I had felt of success but a moment before, now in her presence, I began to conceive it possible that fate might not have
