A Fool and His Money

re deafening than before. I was still in a state of nerves over the events of the morning. There had been a most distressing lack of poise on my part,

from the conviction that my integrity as a gentleman had suffered in a mistaken conflict with humour. My headache, I think, was due in a large measure t

omy corridor, I shouted to

will carry out their threat to have the law on me? Mr. Rocksw

e been waiting outside since two o'clock to tell

on, my head was a

had dropped in the excitement, and he informed Mr. Poopendyke that the whole party was leaving at four for Dresden. I asked particular

I distinctly struc

seems that he swall

valet laugh aloud. He appeared to be in some distress over it himself, for he tried to turn it off into a violent fit of coughing. He is such a faithf

d he. "Will you have you

against all comers. The sun was shining brightly over the western hills, and the sky was clear and blue. The hour was five I found on consulting my watch. Naturally my first impulse was to glance up at the still loftier balcony in th

ould afford no more than brief and even desultory target practice for a smart battery. To scale the cliff, however, would be an impossibility for the most resourceful general in the world. All about me were turrets and minarets, defeated by the ancient and implacable foe-Time. Shattered crests of towers hung above me, grey and forbidding, yet without menace save in their senile prerogative to collapse without warning. Tiny wi

paved courtyard, flanked on all sides by disintegrating buildings once occupied by serfs and fighting men; the stables in which chargers and beasts of burden had slept side by side until called by the night's work or the day's work, as war or p

ewhere in the heart of the peak were secret, unknown passages, long since closed by tum

those olden days: a red-tiled, gloomy city that stood as a monument to long-dead ambitions. A peaceful, quie

t the top of my fancy, to wonde

reams, but alas! infinitely more sensible in that they roamed for

yself to make sure that this was not all imagination. Was I really living in a feudal castle with romance shadowing me at every step? W

I had had a pain in the back of my neck for two whole days. The sooner I got at my novel and finished it up the better, I reflected. Then I could go off

stern tower. Even as I fixed my gaze upon it, something else transpired. A cloud of soft, wavy, luxurious brown hair eclips

r had washe

hair. I can't remember ever having seen any

ing eyes, deeply sensitive to a curiosity that had as its basic force the very natural anxiety to know

ow. That was quite clear, even to a dreamer. And perhaps she was reading a novel while the sun

s thing a crown of hair-but just th

Smart?" he inquired, as he squinted at

in low, excited tones. He hesitated.

it, no matter how tall the door. It is a life-long habit with him. Have I mentioned that my worthy sec

e," he murmured, flattening himself

readjusted the thick mass of hair and quite as casuall

ur correspondence off our hands. A great deal of it has accumulated in the p

letters," said

m all up before we beg

e shan't feel like stop

, when do you expect to

them as romances. Th

pen

, the light of ad

ant, Poopendyke

ightened. H

have your writing

st have a ladder. Ha

ng one foot back through the w

n't told you, have I? Look! Up the

it, sir

don't you know a woman

en it-you might say-jus

do see it,

d it ge

ot dreaming. Come! Ther

get up there bef

lf way across the room before h

nexpectedly like this. Who knows? She may be entirely-" He caught himself up sharp

surrounded by at least a score of persons who madly inquired where the fire was, and wanted to help me to put it out. At l

ipe. His wife shook her head in perfect serenity. Somewhat dashed, I looked about me in quest o

your sons?"

ld up their hands

-ach, that terrible invention of his!" groaned old Conrad. "My poor sons are faint w

he forge bellows," cried his

n for a means to surmount a present difficulty, and but

puffed complacently at their pipes and yawned as if but recently aroused from

ld with the fear that they had mutinied

ain, sir," said Max. "We left him at the botto

e discomforted Britton to the top of the steep. He sputtered considerably until he s

indow in the east wing, second floor back. Even by standing on the shoulders of Rudolph, who was six feet five, I

tructing a substantial ladder out of scantlings, whil

, regarding the window with sly, furtive glances

s window. It was quite black and repelling beyond. Instructing Britton and the two brothers to

to say, we got as far as the top of the stairs in the vast middle corridor after stumbling through a series of dim, damp rooms, and then found

t of white note-paper, with these satiric words w

ut. This is pr

th the stroke of a pen, of at least two-thirds of my domicile, and what more exciting than the thought of waging war against her in the effort to regain possession of it? Really it was quite glorious! Here was a happy, enchanting bit of feudalism that stirred my r

f the Schmicks on the grill, but they stubbornly disclaimed all int

her out, sir,"

rcely belie

ybe a collection of them-over there. And a dog. We shan't do anything heathenish, Britton. Please bea

as not a little out of j

ndyke, in a perfect ecstasy of loyalt

ving that a demonstration was required wit

he valley below. The smell of rain was in the air. I looked in vain for the lady's tresses. They were gone. The sun was also gone. His wo

grandeur in the great banquet h

d time on my right side-and both times across my shoulder,-"we must enga

lso engage a chambermaid?

hand, smiling

hambermaid before the beds are mad

upon we fell to studying the very aristocratic chirography em

ff once more to the enchanted balcony. I was full of the fever of romance. A perfect avalanche of situations had been tumbling through my brain for hours,

that it would soon be booming about my stronghold, and realised that my fancy would have to work faster than it had ever worked before if half that I had in mind was to be accomplished. Why I should have courted a broken evening on

trifles as besottednesss, vulgarity and the superior knack of knowing how to avoid making suitable provision for one's wife and children. All the shabby short-comings in the character of an author, artist or actor are blithely charged to ge

upted by a bolt of lightning. (There were low mutterings of thunder behind the hills, and faint flashes as

ears a sound that gave me a greater shock than any streak of lightning could have produ

t quite near at hand! Indeed, I could have sworn it was almost at my e

ut would you mind doi

eet, perfectly confident voice, as of one wh

one was to be seen. She laughed. Without really me

seemed to come: a perfectly solid stone block less than three feet from my right s

?" I cried out

d you are very ugly when you sco

thfully, still searching for

es

g in the right directi

must

where I stood, and on a direct line with my balcony. True, I could not at first see a face, but as my eyes g

ittle window was ther

can close it." The oblong blotch abruptly disappeared, only to reappear an instant later. I was beginning

l about it. "May I enquire, madam, wh

u m

ng the point, "what

ere," she answ

" said I, rathe

o ask a simple, tiny li

" she

name?" I crie

your last book

w I grasped the lanthorn and brought its rays to bear upon the-perfectly blank wall! I star

ly in the centre of the spot so recently marked by the elusive oblong. Even as I stared at the holes, a slim object that

its place inside the window and wait

nded when the shadowy face looked out o

do that again. It was very rude of you, Mr. Smart." "Oh, I've seen something

as si

n me if I very politely a

ery kind as to cease bothering me, Mr. Smart? It is dreadfully ups

. In my own

more than a month or six weeks, and I am sure we can get along very amiably un

the place and you are proving to be a serious obstacle. I cannot grant your requ

e me

went on resolutely. "It is

ll not do anyt

wing. Failing in that we shall rely on smoke. You will

" she said, rat

cultured, high-bred lady,-and an American. I was too densely enveloped by the fogginess of my own senses at this time, however, to t

rmness seemed to dissolve, even as I sought to reinforce i

premises er-or-" here is where I began to

ou be ge

sly. How well they know th

t. "Can't we effect a compromise? A truce, or something of the sort? All I ask is that you exp

in which to think it over?" s

N

, two

ternoon at five, when I shall exp

quite imp

ht to go wherever I p

o

am obliged to be at present you wo

ight on the case. What have you been

hould write you a nice, agreeable letter, expla

have it by wo

to this window to-morrow night at this time

I. "We'll let it

ing and hammering going on in the castle? The noise is dreadful. I don't ask it on my own account,

by?" I

course. The doctor was here

here to-da

. Verily, it was a ge

to the noise for a day or tw

rised to say anything else.

plied. Then: "Good night, Mr

orget to

th a sharp click, and I found myself s

the cruel darkness, never to be recovered,-at least not in their original form,-I scrambled

d a terrific drenching if she