Aftermath / Part second of A Kentucky Cardinal""

and of a far greater suitableness to my palate than such bovine watery growths as

ns as though you loved th

them. I lov

ing them as vines

o differenc

to be a vine whe

ere vegetable. How should you l

t would

ou like? A sort of

pport me and give me p

o Georgiana, though I a

ent about anything sh

ylvia once wrote a p

id n

peak as thou

how deeply in

't you ask to

on butte

ylvia has be

better look i

not to la

all w

e not to we

m I to

will read

e-solemnly,

ome and

w. Georgiana soon returned and droppe

fore she began to t

e a very e

the only copy; ple

k it-" But she was gone; and I turned to my arbor and sat down to read Sylvia

this wi

e or does b

ely yet mor

e usefu

his world ful

poor, hig

for this lit

necessa

s homely t

etty even

l bear acq

seful

t is cooked

white an

it ever w

seful

it is a very

conspic

rnal appeara

ostentati

and or on

er we

ways glad

nd Pota

ime over the signature of another writer, whose authorship is not known to have been qu

L.

arn. Neither can I talk freely to Georgiana-with her up at the window and me down on the ground-when I wish to breathe into her ear the things that I must utter or die. Besides, the sewing-girl whom Georgiana has engaged is near

o remember, I stopped at my tool-house, where I keep a little of everything, and took from a peg a fine old specimen of a goldfinch's nest. This I fastened to the end of the pole, and hiding my note in it, now felt better satisfied. No one but Georgiana herself would ever be able to tell what it was that I mi

en the sewing-girl was not there, I rushed

called out, "fe

sewing in her arms. The nest swayed

ied, drawing back wi

in it!"

eel in it," she sa

ve in it," I persis

oung cooers," she s

te post-office!" Georgiana sank back into her chair. She reappeared with the flush of apple-blossoms and her lashes wet with t

e things are we going to hav

," I said. "This is growin

aid Georgiana, simply, an

gainst the house under the window. Late

r, who never saw a goldfinch's nest swung to the end of a leafless pole and placed where it could be so exactly reached by the human hand. In particular it has fallen under the notice of a pair of wrens, which are like women, in that they usually have some secret business behind their curiosity. The business in this

I fear that my brain is not of the sort to discover what is the matter with a woman when nothing really is the matter. Moreover, as I am now engaged

arked, but very carelessly,

rgiana?" I aske

me such

nto that-into that-" Her face gr

e-into the-" I could not ha

rejected every hypothesis to the last one. Acting upon this, I walked straight to the saddle-house, and in a dark corner peered at the nest of the wrens. A speck of white paper was visible among the sticks and shavings. I to

t, Georgiana!

ng relieved, but no

he

ze to the roo

nd it?" she repea

t to know for?"

e it!" she

it suddenl

she repeated, w

want to see i

urned

" I said, an

a long time, and

e pigs

s merely a change

one to them," she said, "s

ves. Sylvia, for instance. She grew peevish with me the other day because my garden failed to furnish the particular flowers that would have assuaged her whim. And yet for days Sylvia has be

timental being up to the highest pitch. Feeling herself to be naturally a good instrument and now perfectly in tune, Sylvia requires that she shall be continually played upon-if not by one person, then by another. Nature overloads a tendency in order to make it carry straight along its course against the interference of other tendencies;

ne; growing high in the air at the end of a bough and clustered about by its shining leaves. But what beauty, purity, freshness! You must hunt to find it and climb to reach it; but when you get it,

the evening of her Commencement-him of the duck trousers and webbed feet. On one occasion I have observed her walking along the borders of my

r a quiet hour with thoughts of Georgiana. Whom should I surprise in there but Sylvia and t

der his coattails, gripped him by the seat of his ducks, dragged him

n here kissing anyb

had been forced to stoop down and twist him loose by screwing the end of his spongy nose. I met him o

ever breathe it to a soul that you soiled that child by your touch, the ne

rne returning to the arbor had I not felt assured that she must have esca

a!" I exclaimed. "I kno

't kiss-my

"And I have waited to tell you that I hope you will never interr

!" I said, gravely, si

ld are

own affairs," said Sylvia, "with th

ing you, which the other members of your family may not fully understand. If you were younger, Sylvia, you might do a good deal of this and not be

I be?" said Sy

rmly, a little nettled by her tone,

ur case?"

ind my case!

it," said Sylvia. "I do mind it if

lied, "that I never kissed you but

but my brother to kis

th a pout

rs of discrimination as to the way she should act with indifferent

ing. I was sitting close to her. The moonlight played upon her daring, wilful face through the leaves of the grape-vines. It was unpremedi

ce to the arbor I do not know. She may that instant have come. But there she was, dressed in white-pu

ght with the same gentlewoman's calm, she placed her arm about the child'

would gladly have crept into the hollow of an oak and closed my eyes. Still, how was I to foresee what I shoul

that the goldfinch's nest looked as though it were distent with a sort of misshapen ostrich egg. All day I waited with a heart as silent as a great clock run down; my system of philosophy swung dead in the air. To my tortured vision as I eyed it secretly from my

a man expects a woman to scold him and she does not, he either gets to be a little afraid of her morally or he wants to take her in his arms. Henceforth, if Georgiana were removed to another planet, I would rather worship her there simply as my evening or morning star tha

to despatch a reckless note: "Will you come to the arbor for a little while tonight? I have never dared ask this before, but you know

ight of the curve of a shoulder and the movemen

t once. I

n the pencil; then note and pencil were p

five minutes, and then I started aimlessl

giana!" I excla

" said she.

nd then my awful soul within me said: "H-sh

into the garden, and led them around it, giving orde

ls. My father, who was interested in antiquities, had had much correspondence with Mr. Jefferson in regard to earlier discoveries at that spot; and when this expedition was

ge who had original information as to geological times, I set Jack to talking about the bones of the Mastodon-Maximus, the name of which he gets from me, with a puzzled shake of his head, about regularly o

d some ribs found there for his tent-poles and a tooth for his hominy beater; whereupon Dilsy, foreseeing

rd the hinges softly creak, whereupon I feigned not to believe what Jack was telling me; whereupon he fell into an harangue of such affectionate an

thrust out spiteful fac

r guide him firmly to the van of war! How does a woman feel when she is making her wedding-clothes for the second time and for another man? I know very well

t ready! Think

"Where are all those cloth

n me to keep them locked up for the first year or so after Georgiana and I become a diune being; and, upon the whole, she should never know what may have been the premarital shortcomings of my wardrobe as respects things unseen. No matter how well a bachelor may appear dressed, there is no telling what he conceals upon his person. I feel sure that the retrospective discovery of a ravelling would somehow dis

wing to a close. It is

ord that she will marr

get the bridal feather

re th