The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories

aughter's marriage it did not cause him to lift the veil o

ewhere in Western New York. There had been at this period, for Mrs. Newell, a phase of large hospitality and showy carriages in Washington and at Narragansett. Then her husband had had reverses, had lost heavily in Wall Street, and had finally drifted abroad and been lost to sight. The young man did not know at what point in his financial decline Mr. Newell had parted company with his wife and daughter; "though you may be

ack against the blistered mirror at an angle suggesting that in a freer civilization his feet would have sought the same level. He greeted Garnett affably and the two exchanged their usual generalizations on life till the sage rose to go; whereupon it occurred to Garnett to accompany him. His

d the rue Panonceaux where I must go presently. I thought I

and desultory traffic which marks the old streets of the Latin quarter. He fixed his mil

of the way hole, but I can tell

young man the full force of his interrogative gaze; then he adde

t of keeping with his friend's usual attitude of detachment. Before he could reply, howev

aid Garnett with a

said resignedly; "and in that case," he added, "we

deepening astonishment. "But you do

id drily; "and if you have no objection, I prefer not to break through

, making for one of the less frequented alleys, seated himself on a bench and drew the fragment of a roll from his pocket. His coming was evidently expected, for a

rst frenzy of his pensioners appeased, that he turned to Gar

ore simply the old man took his mission th

," he said at length. "You have perh

thfully," said Miss Newell's parent,

ubt thought it natural that, under the circumsta

ion on the sparrows. "My wife," he r

aid she might not he

o announce the marriage. She knows I have no money left

standing as the representative of something guilty and

your daughter have asked me to see you because they are

his attention to the birds, and turn

have been acquainted with Mrs. Newell?" And without waiting for an answer he added judicial

ift to answer good-humouredly: "If you refer to my present errand, I must tell you that

ly for another morsel of bread; then he said: "From her point of

checked by the brevity of tone with which his companion replie

"except in so far as you are willing to conside

other with his dry smile; "what I don't re

nd after a moment's pause Mr. Newe

certain regularity, and this is the hour for my nap." He rose as he spoke and

am to take back a refusal

without me for a number of years: I imagine the

were not for that I shouldn't

was turning away. "Not

ns, the wedding can't be pu

whistle. "They've got to have my consent

prise. "I hear the best accounts of him

ll, then, I give my consent-it's all I've

onsent-if you approve-why do you

ll!" he said. And as Garnett was again silent, he

ere. Miss Newell cannot be married unless you are present at the ceremony. The young man's parents know that she has a father livin

vigour. "She had better marry an American." And he made a mor

yed in a common resolve to exclude poor Hermione from their ranks. The very inequality of the contest stirred his blood, and made him vow that in this case at least the sins of the parents should not be visited on the children. In his talk with the young secretary he had obtained some glimpses of Baron Schenkelderff's past which fortified this resolve. The Baron, at one time a familiar figure in a much-observed London set, had been mixed up in an ugly money-lending business ending in suicide, which had excluded him from the society most accessible to his race. His alliance with Mrs. Newe

ved Garnett to hold his ground in spite of the resistance he encountered; and he tried to put t