Kitty's Class Day and Other Stories

joined them, ready to set out by the afternoon train, al

ter now?" he asked, paternally, for

ole, and is perfectly nonsensical, uncle," be

at, being interesting, and Amy romantic, she might find this y

ner, any one of which objections are enough to settle that matter. Little Amy isn't so foolish as to

rgets that she is a great deal more attractive than a feeble thing like me. I should as soon think of losing my heart to Hoffman as to the Pole, eve

ds. But she shook her head privately when she saw the ill-disguised eagerness with which her cousin gla

hance, and don't ask the Po

you like to nurse sick heroes," was all the answer she got, as the major, with true masculin

desert us. We've always a spare seat for

up, but hesitated to accept the invitation t

er corner as if indifferent to everything about her. But soon the cloud passed, and she

man to see his friend and describe the places through which they passed. An arrangem

eturn he reported that all the hotels and pensions were full, but that at La Tour he

aged to a party who are detained by sickness-they are cheap, pleasant, and comfortable. A salon and four bed-rooms. I engaged them all, thinking that Teb

st my old bones in something like a home, after this long trip," said

old stone gate, they were led into a large saloon, quaintly furnished and opening into a terrace-garden overhanging the wat

s on a vacation were the only inmates besides thems

was only time for a hasty survey of their ro

when she shook out her airy muslins, smoothed her curls, and assumed all manner of distracting devices for the captivation of mankind. Even Helen, though not much given to personal

prised them by his skill in music, for, though forbidden to sing on account of his weak lungs, he played as if inspired. Amy hovered about him like a moth; the major culti

r. There was no moon, but through the starlight she saw a man's figure among the shrubs below, sitting with bent h

when, as if startled by some sound she did not he

e while all the rest make merry, with no care for him. Uncle must see t

e it for my amusement to-morrow. Uncle says it's a very Radcliffian place. How like an angel that man

nd his mystery. Hour after hour rung from the cuckoo-clock in the hall, but still she lay awake, watching the curious shadows in

It was rusty and would not yield, and, giving it up, she glanced about to see whence air could be admitted. There were four doors in the room, all low and arched, with clumsy locks and heavy handles. One opened into a closet, one into the passage; the third was l

s as full of malignant menace as was the clinched hand holding the pistol. One instant Helen looked, the next flung to the door, bolted it and dropped into a chair, trembling in every limb. The noise did not wake

close by in the dark, she heard the sound of some one breathing as he listened at the key-hole. Then a careful hand tried the door, so noiselessly tha

r this roof, unless this is satisfactorily cleared up,

he woke, smiling and rosy as a child. Saying nothing of her last night's alarm, Helen went down to breakfast a little paler than usual, but o

and see the myst

ed by her secret, for Hoffman might be a traitor, and this charming chateau a

let, a stone table with a loaf and pitcher on it, and, kneeling before a crucifix, where the light from a single slit in the wall fell on him, was the figure of a monk. The waxen mask was life-li

rt. In old times there really was a hermit here, and this is his effigy. Co

him, glaring over his shoulder with threatening eyes, and one hand on the pistol. They all looked at her, for she was pale, and her merri

unused, it was forgotten. I remembered it, and having risen early, crept up to make sure that you did n

and quiet, sitting by me when I woke, guarding me faithful

to fire your own pistols at

illiped the image on its

ense is this goblin here for?

e, one step beyond the threshold of the door, was a trap, down which the unfortunates were precipitated to the dungeon at the bottom of the tower, there to die and be cast into the la

t the image, as if he would muc

ighting upon some horror of this sort. I've had enough; come away int

lead her down the steep stone steps, and he pressed the little

give a bud to a lady is to confess the beginning of love, a half open one tells of its growth, an

e, and held the bud separately while

fancy," and Amy settled her bouquet with an absorbed expressi

ss his face, then flung all three into the lake with a gest

or me it i

d bouquet, she gave it to him, with no touch of

. When one is ill nothing is so c

ad descended and gone

etched arms and a shout of satisfaction. He caught it up and carried it

e major dusted his coat, saw this, and said, sud

le people. I wonder if

s not married; I asked him

said he

y, and fond of a wandering life, so what shoul

something peculiar about him?" asked Helen, remembering Hoffman's hint that her uncle knew his wish to travel incognito, an

all foreigners seem more or less so to us, they are so unreserved and demonstrative

truth. It is no concern of mine; but I wish I knew," thou

y duped, and Helen trusted more to her own quick and keen eye than to his experience. She tried to show nothing of the change in h