Two Strangers

ude which never feels so great as among a crowd. It seemed wonderful to him, as it is specially to those who have been more or less in what is c

hich he recognized or being greeted by one voice he had ever heard before. To be sure, this was partly owing to the fact that the person of whom he was specially in search was a very small person, to be distinguished at a very low pitch of stature near to the ground, not a tall on a level with the other forms. There were a few children among the groups on the lawn, and he pursued a white frock in various directions, which, when found, proved to contain some one who was not Tiny; but at last he came to that little person cl

ifted at her feet. "It is

only saw each other in the dark. Will you c

the little runaway of the previous night, yet recognized something in her for which he was not at all prepared, which he could not explain to himself. Why did the child look at him so? And he looked at her, not with the half fantastic, amused liking which had made him see

Mr. Bertram? She is nearly five! and she really can talk just as well as I can, when she likes. Tiny! now remember!" Lucy was very earnest in her desire

o for our walk, T

the wasser. Mamma says Tiny tumble in, but gemplemans tw

u're sure your mo

o!"-this was uttered with a little stamp of the foot and raised voice as if in i

s obedience was to the

way," said Bertram,

child, dragging him on.

we both fal

emans to fall into the wasser

at's true

go in the boat if you like. Come! Oh, Tiny do, do want to go in the boat; and there's flowers

my shoulder? and then we

himself with this little creature seated on his shoulder, than she was on her elevated seat, where indeed she was entirely at her ease, guiding him with imperative tugs at the collar of his coat and beating her small foot against his br

y with her nurse on some recent walk. Bertram knew a great many things, but it is very doubtful whether he was aware that it was wonderful to find forget-me-nots so late. And Tiny was a sight to{110} see when he put her down in the stern of the boat and pulled across the pond with a few long strokes. Her eyes, which had a golden light in their darkness, shone with triumph and delight; the brown of her little sunburnt face glowed transparent as if there was a light within; her dark curls waved; the piquancy of the complexion so unusual in a child, the chant of her little voice shouting, "Fordet-me-nots, fordet-me-nots!" her little rapture of eagerness and pleasure carried him altogether out of himself. He had loved that complexion in his day; perhaps it was some recollection, some resemblance, which was at the bottom of this strange absorption in the little creature of whose very existence he had not been aware till last night. Now, if he had been called on to give his very life for Tiny he would have been capable of it, without knowing why; and, indeed, there would have

long," as she said, while Bertram{112} secured those that were further off. And then there arose a great difficulty as to how to carry these w

f your frock was wet and dirty?"

d,'" said the little girl, with a very grav

art people, Tiny once more on Bertram's shoulder, with the bundle of flowers bobbing in front of his nose, and, it need not be said, some trace of the gathering of the flowers and of the muddy edges of the pool, and the moss-grown planks of th

got a mummie," said Tiny;

r way, repeating it again and again-"Have zoo dot a little girl?"-her dialect

o perhaps an anxious or angry mother on a level, which would make her impaired toilet less conspicuous.{114} After all, there was nothing so wonderful in the fact that a little girl had dirtied her frock. He had no occasion to feel so guilty and disturbed about it. And this is how it happened that the adventurers appeared quite humbly, Tiny not half pleas

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