too, and they do say he hasn't given as much as that himself, this year. You'd better go to that dentister right away and have the darned thing right out, and feel comfortable for Christmas.

An hour or two longer and it was more than Gora could bear. She was almost crazed, and on the impulse of the pain, she hurried on her bonnet, threw a shawl about her, and rushed out of the house to go to Croyden. How she got there, she scarcely knew, but in less time

than she had ever walked the same distance before, she found herself ringing the bell that led into the office of Dr. Morgan.

There was instant response, and Dr. Morgan stood before her, and, without waiting to ask her business, invited her to enter.

Well might Mabel Dean say he was handsome, thought Cora, for he was. Not very tall, and finely formed. About twenty-five years of age, dark complexion, brown.

Cora obeyed, and seated herself in the dentist's great chair. He touched her chin with his white finger, and she opened her mouth. He looked in. There was nothing very romantic about that.

In fact, it rather struck Cora as being comic, and she looked up in the doctor's face with an inclination to laugh, but did not.

"You have beautiful teeth," he said, "and I don't know what right that ugly fellow that has been giving you so much trouble has to be among them. But nature will assert itself. He is one too many among them, and is the only one that is in the slightest degree decayed. Under ordinary circumstances, I should fill it, but I see that it crowds the rest, and must come out. Shall I administer the gas, or have you the courage to stand before this weapon, without ?”

"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life," said Morgan, taking her hand gently, and pressing it to his lips.

Cora knew that she ought to be terribly angry at this. Such presumption from a stranger! But she could not help smiling, for she was very happy, and thought that at last somebody could speak their admiration outright, and perhaps he would his love, too, very soon, for it was love that she saw beaming out of his eyes.

She was not mistaken. Another pause of a minute or two, and he said, softly:

66

'Miss Gray, pardon me if this declaration seems too abrupt, but I cannot restrain myself from saying it. I may offend you, but if you will think one moment, you will see that I am truthful, and that I am not responsible for my own feeling. I love you-I love you most devotedly. From the instant I first saw you, which was before to-day-for I have seen you walking in the streets of Croyden, and found out who you were-I loved you,

Cora looked at them with a shudder. She had never had a tooth pulled; but she had a horror of it which she could not control.

"It is only an idea, Miss Gray," he said, with a smile. "The pain of drawing a tooth is only one of a minute, and if you take the gas there is absolutely no pain whatever. I have been making fresh gas this morning. A pretty employment for Christmas Day.

And he laughed, and pointed to a gayly painted retort standing in the corner of the room-"Nitrous oxide."

"I think I will do without the gas," said Cora, trying to smile through her agony, and looking with curtosity toward the retort. "But I have always had a curiosity about it. I should like to see somebody else take it."

"That you may have a chance to do this very morn ing," said Morgan. "I have a patient coming here this morning-a young lady-to whom I shall administer it, and draw a troublesome tooth. She sent me word only a few minutes before you came in. Meantime I will explain it to you."

And the doctor took up a little india-rubber bag, and began showing how the gas was administered, from which her attention was a little abstracted from her eyes wandering about the room, and gazing upon the Venus, Psyche and cupids, of which Mabel Dean had so admiringly spoken.

"One has only to place this over their mouth," she heard him say-"so. You see, it is like a mouthpiece to a speaking-tube, and then breathe just the same as they would breathe without it. I always advise my patients, when they take it, to think of something pleasant just as they are going off, and these thoughts are likely to follow them in their dreams while under the influence."

How handsome he was while he was saying all this, Cora thought, and how deftly and gracefully he handled the apparatus as he explained and touched the mouthpiece, which was of burnished silver, to her, lips.

She knew that she was looking upon him admiringly, and that he must see it; but she could not help it. In fact, she caught his eye for an instant and there was a fascination in it that was marvelous to her.

She had never experienced the same feeling before in her life, and she was conscious of a blush that she could not control. He looked steadily at her for a minute after finishing his explanation, and Cora knew that in the look there was love. She forgot instantly the pain she had been suffering with, and tried to cast down her eyes, but in vain."

You will give me hope, Cora; you will let me love you, and you will try to love me in return ?"

And once more he took up her unresisting hand and pressed it to his lips.

"Dr.-Mr. Morgan-sir !" stammered Cora, frightened almost, but still, in spite of it pleased, though she could scarcely define why; "this is so strange! You are a stranger to me. It is too sudden for me to understand all you say."

And Cora, forgetting all about her toothache-in fact, not feeling it at all in her agitation-rose to her feet. 4 "I must go!"

"Not yet not yet, Cora! Listen to me," said Morgan, passionately. "I have told you that I love you, that I have loved you for weeks-weeks that have seemed like years I cannot expect you to love me in a moment, but give me hope-let me believe that the future may yield to my devotion. Let me know that you do not love another !"

What was Cora to do? She did love him; she loved him from the very instant her eye looked into his. What could she do? She could not tell him instantly that she loved him, but she could tell him that she did not love another, and she did so, almost in a whisper. Again he caught her hand and smothered it with kisses and went on :

"Cora, I found in you the one for whom I have sought all my life. I knew from the instant I saw you first in the street that you were my fate, and I have trembled ever since, lest I might lose you. Give me only one little word of encouragement, one word of hope. Say that you will try to love me."

Cora could not help giving him a glance of encouragement, he was so handsome, he was so earnest! It was as good as though she had spoken, and so he interpreted it.

With an exclamation of delight he caught her in his arms, and before the unresisting girl knew his purpose, he had pressed a burning kiss upon her lips.

"Oh, my darling !-my darling !" he exclaimed, wildly, "how happy you have made me! But," he continued, lowering his voice and looking sadly into her eyes, while he still held her in his arms, "Cora, I am poor."

Cora did not seem to care how poor he was, even though he had been a beggar in rags, and she said so, though she qualified it by telling him that his room did not look like that of a poor man, and as for wealth, she had enough, and would give him all he needed.

He laughed, glanced about the room, pressed her once more to his bosom, and kissed her again.

"I love you, Oscar," she murmured, trembling and looking up into his eyes, while she wondered how she knew his name was Oscar, and remembered that she had read it upon the sign at the door as she came in. "Then, my princess, you are mine for ever!" he exclaimed, proudly, holding her off from him and looking into her eyes. "Unknown and poor I have won you, and now I will confess to you, Cora, I am a powerful prince in the planet Mars, and I have come to earth in search of a wife-one who could love me for myself alone-and I have found her in you."

This declaration did not seem to astonish Cora a bit. She felt as though Oscar Morgan, now that she did love him so much and told him so, might be almost anything. He looked like a prince, every inch a prince, and she was so happy that she felt like a princess.

"Fear not," he said, in the sweetest of voices. "Do not think, my darling, that in asking you to wed me, it is to take you away from your home on earth. No; I have the power to pass from this planet to my own with the quickness of thought—a journey of a few minutes, at furthest and return as quickly at will. By the same power I can convey those I love, so that we can dwell there or here, though when once you see the place of my birth, with its grand mountains, its gorgeous and illimitable fields and forests, its palaces of gold and gems, its rivers of perfumed waters, its skies of unchanging brightness, you will never wish to return again to this gloomy, storm-ridden, plodding earth."

Cora thought that any place with him would be a fairyland, and hung enchanted on his words.

"I am rich, my Cora," he continued "rich beyond all earthly calculations. That poor dross which here is called gold, and for which men-ay, and women also-struggle and die, is with us but valueless savé as you use stoneto build our palaces with. I can bring you countless gems such as this earth has never seen, not only of those the wealthy of your world possess, but a thousand sorts of which they have never seen or heard. You shall have palaces on earth that shall surpass those of kings, and palaces in my own planet that shall surpass them. You shall have servants and attendants that shall vie in beauty and brightness with any creature that the art of the earth can accomplish. These which you see about you, and which the denizens of this world call Venus, Psyche, Cupid, and various names, are but copies of the dwellers in Mars, which have flitted through your artists' dreams, and which they have reduced to stone or canvas, and believe them creatures of their imagination. I can imbue them with life at a word and bid them serve you. They are my subjects. You see, my darling, this exquisite figure. You of the earth call him Puck, and your great Shakespeare one day met him somewhere in his wanderings-for the boy is a sad truant-and gave him earthly life. See, I will call him by his English name. 'Ho! Puck! Here !'"

In an instant, before Cora could think, the marble figure was transformed into flesh and blood, and came dashing through the air to Oscar Morgan's feet, and, with a clear, musical voice, sang: "I can put a girdle round the earth in forty minutes.'

"No doubt you can, sir. But that is not what I want of you now. Hasten, and in less time than forty minutes bring the handsomest bouquet you can find in the gardens of my Winter palace for this lady, my future princess. And before you go just let me mention to you that those

"Ay, ay, master, I know that," said Puck, with a laugh; "but Ariel isn't here, you see, and he left 'em with me."

"There, that will do! Run away, and hurry back !" And in a moment Puck had disappeared like a flash. "And now, my darling little Cora, we will unloose some of these creatures who are now bound up in marble and canvas, that you may talk to them. They will tell you of the glory and greatness of my native world—a far greater world than this-and of the realms they inhabit in this and other worlds. Here, for instance, are three spirits chained in what you people of the earth call immortal marble. Why immortal? A few thousand years crumble it into dust, while those whom it represents endure for ever. These three figures are Earth, Sea and Air. I will give them life."

And as he spoke, Oscar waved his hand, and straightway the tiny group of marble-scarce a foot in heightsprang into life and upon the table.

Oh! but they were exquisitely beautiful, and Cora, in the enthusiasm of her admiration, would have caught them in her arms, if she had not been astounded by casting her eyes toward Oscar, and seeing that, without perceiving the knowledge of the change, he stood before her in the most beautiful costume she had ever beheld-darkcrimson satin and velvet, fairly glistening with rubies and carbuncles, with one grand diamond, pink in tint, and as large as an egg, glistening on his breast.

Ah, was he not gorgeous now? Was he not all the beauty and grandeur embodied in a king?

Cora felt that she could have fallen at his feet, and sworn fealty to him for ever, and, perhaps, he thought she was about to do so, when he caught her once more in his arms and, again pressing his lips to hers, led her to the table where the three spirits stood as if awaiting her.

She took their tiny hands in hers, fondled and kissed them, then listened to their sweet voices as they each in turn chanted their refrain:

"I am the Spirit of the Earth," sang the first, "I am deputed to its care. From me cometh the grain-the main fount of life-the luscious fruits, the plants that nourish and cure, the fair and beautiful flowers. I bring forth the grasses that serve as food for the beasts of burden, of pleasure, or of nurture. I serve man as man

"And I," sang the second, "am the Spirit of the Air, and serve man without return. He cannot serve me, and to him my ways are unknown. I bring him soft Summer winds and Winter's blast. I fan his cheek with spicy gales, or, with a whim, level his cities, or sweep his fleets from the sea. I bring him food in the wild fowl; I distribute the seed of the flower. I am the most powerful of the spirits. I—”

"And I," said the third, interrupting-a little testily, Cora thought-" am the Spirit of the Sea. The world could not move without me. Upon my bosom floats its commerce. I bring nations together, and give to man most important food, asking no return of labor save that which is necessary to carry it from me. I”

"There, that will do, my gentle spirits," said Oscar, with a wave of the hand. "Back to your marbles."

And instantly the three figures resolved themselves again to stone, and took their places upon the pedestal.

"And now, my gentle Cora, what shall I do more to convince you of my power? There is none on this earth of yours that is human that can compare with it. I am