A Fool There Was

of contrasts. So one may be permitted again to say: At a time when pompous, ponderous, white-whiskered, black-suited old Dr. DeLancey was engaged in bringing to the daughter of Kathryn Blair

ter of a decade. His horse went slowly, lifting each forefoot daintily and pl

at oak was at his left. He rounded it. His horse raise

. It was a strange pic

ed like some nymph of the wood; for there are nymphs in the Bois du N

clothing; and he knew that it was not a nymp

She sat there, her slender legs beneath her, her slender body leaning upon one rounded, white arm. Great masses of dead-black hair fell about her glowing shoulders, half covering the arm which su

ath it lay coiled a snake. Its eyes were fastened upon those of the squirrel and its flat, ugly head was

er and the naked girl. They w

ly down the bark of the oak-and then the other-the one hind fo

girl…. The squirrel crept yet further down the

off into the underbrush…. The naked girl turned dark, deep eyes upon the stranger. She seemed not to mind her nakedness. And

od

er, sinuously, so that she faced him, slender legs half stretched. The dead blac

a little; he brushed his hand across th

d, almost unseating him…. He had gone far down the trail before he reine

tranger swung his horse into this turning. He knew that it added to the len

avelled road, he breathed a deep, de

ustr