The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding

y to anticipate his wants. He was very near tears sometimes, when his furtive glances around the table showed only str

t, and with an indulgent smile leaned over with her ear almost touching his lips. Before the dinner was over he fell

s for dessert. "Wait a minute. Carry him up-stairs first, please, Papa Jack. If I c

the room to tell her. Lloyd looked down at the little white-gowned figure in the cr

urt, please, and I'll come down aftah awhile. Oh, Betty! Isn't he a darling?

eving, she put herself into Wardo's place so completely that she cried too. Then everybody in the house rose to the occasion. Papa Jack brought out Tarbaby, and walked him up and down the avenue as long as

ed, he actually invented a game of bear, which they played in his den. They played it till Wardo began shrieking with thrills of real fear at the fearsome growling and the big fur g

ould look over and see the eggs in a blue-bird's nest. Then little by little she stopped their swinging, till presently they were swaying very gently back and forth near the gro

for Lloyd's lesson. So although she had intended to spend the morning outlining a magazine

ritable little tyrant, demanding attention every moment of his waking hours. But when her unremitting service grew irksome Lloyd had only to think of Ida, tossing helpless and delirious at the mercy of the wasting fever. Her daily visits to the cottage kept her in full r

ployed she took him wherever she went, except on that one short drive which she made daily to Rollington. When she and Betty spent the day at The Beeches or the Cabin, he was one of the party. When Miss Marks had another expeditio

twilight. He had been asleep most of the way home, but roused up as the carriag

et! Such a delicious ending to such a nice day. Do you know, Lloyd, I've been feeling all the way home as if I were going to hear from my boo

Betty?" asked Wardo, sleepily raising

"It's just a sort of happy flutter all through you

ached the steps, and with a spring she was out, calling eagerly as she stepped into the broa

to meet them. "And it will keep. Better run on in and eat y

all Mrs. Sherman turned to Lloyd, who was half dra

disappointment as long as possible, and not spoil her happy day wit

they've refused it! They suahly couldn't have done that! Maybe

the odour of August lilies when they were heavy with dew, that she did not see the trag

asn't good enough. It's all a miserable mistake to think that I can w

nt any dinner," she said, then with her mouth twitching piteously as she fought back t

window in the hopelessness of utter defeat. The katydids shrilling in the Locusts seemed to fill the night with an unbearable discord. She put her hands over her ears to shut out the hateful sound. It seemed to her t

ght her the newspaper containing her first published poem. It was called "Night," and as they guided her finger over the page that it might re

er great hope. The ambition to be an author had been a part of her

was the hardest part to bear, that she had been so mistaken. It would have been easier, she thought bitterly, if her rebuffs had come earlier; if some of her first contributions had been returned. But the way had been made so easy for her. Her very first poems had been accepted, printed, prai

s as if she had been urged down a flowery path by each one she met, to find that every guide

aseless questioning; then a little later Lloyd's voice singing him to sleep. After that there was the soun

of gratitude that the

locking of doors, and then steps again on th

ght, Bet

as a sob in it, and divining that the kindest thing would be not to notice it, Ll

e publisher who had returned it. If he had sent merely a printed notice of refusal, such as she had been told was customary, stating impersonally that it was returned with regret because unavailable, she would have sta

ich it was written. Betty was sure of her ability there. She was as conscious that her diction and composition measured up to the best standards, as an athlete is conscious of his strength. It was her view-point of life that

with ceremony and good wishes. It has come back a shipwreck! It was almost easier to face blindness than it is to face this failure. How can I give up this hope that has grown with my growth till it means more than everything

h l

d hand of min

ryst o

that I am not able to keep the great tryst worthily, and yet-life seems so empty with this

the girls. It had been a temptation to show it to her godmother and Papa Jack and the Colonel, especially after the girls had applauded it so enthusiastically; but the wish for them to see it at its best had made her withhold it in its manuscript form. The climax of her triumph was to

ning, when she was awakened by the first bird-calls and lay watching the light creep up the wall, the old childish habit of thought asserted itself, bringing an unexpected balm to her sore heart. She had always loved allegories. At the Cuckoo's Nest she had help

ng's call and striven to keep tryst, and she remembered that when he knelt to receive his knighthood, something

st in purple splendour to mark

met defeat and she had fallen into a grievous Dungeon of Disappointment, but she needn't stay in it. She sprang out of bed echoing Edryn's words: "Full well I know that Heaven

mated Betty's disappointment. It surely could not have been as overwhelming as she imagined. She did not know how many times that day Betty's courage

in her hands. She was on her way to put it in the kitchen stove. Promptly resc

ldn't be the success in literature you had a right to expect, though I did try that with all my soul, mind and strength. I've been thinking about it all day, and I made up my mind at last, that I'd burn up that miserable story that I wasted so many months on, and then I'd go to you and tell you that under

e driven away the last vestige of her bitter self-condemnation. It did help wonderfully to hear that her godmother and Papa Jack were not disappointed in her though grieved for her disappointment; that they lo

y, but she still persisted that she must go away somewhere

to talk the matter over with the old Colonel. Mr. Sherman was a

k of nearly all young writers, your ignorance of life. You must know more of the world before you can have a message for it that it will stop to listen to. You must live and grow and gain experience, and he thinks the best way for you to do al

t who as yet can only follow in the train of others-write what has already been written. You haven't the wares with which to ga

s royal entrance." She quoted softly, "'And no man fills his crystal vase with it un

raised to hers. "I suppose it's true, but I can't help wanting to save you from the pricks and the burdens. Still I won't stand in your way. Go ahe

legram in her hand for Warwick Hall. It was to Madam Chartley asking if she knew