t once I
felt an arm around my waist, and while I was holding my breath, with
astonishment, some one kissed me.

I gave a little scream, and pushed away that impudent arm with all my
might.

The arm wore a coat-sleeve--I can take my oath to that--and if I was
used to such things I should say that there was a beard about the lips
that touched my face.

Sisters, it seemed to me for a minute as if Cousin E. E. really had got
a roaring lion in her dining-room.

While I sat there breathless and wondering if he would have the
impudence to repeat that audacious conduct, a soft hand took hold of
mine, and a sweet voice whispered in my ear:

"Forgive me, dearest, I did not mean to be rude."

I did not speak, but his penitence touched me with compassion. Softly I
pressed the hand, in token of a relenting heart. How could I be hard on
a man who meant no real harm, considering the temptation.

He whispered something more, but I could not hear distinctly; for just
then a waiter came in with a candle in his hand. Says he, "The gas works
are blown up, and all Murray Hill, and more too, is in total darkness."

Then there was a burst of voices; everybody laughed and everybody had
something to say, which no one listened to.

"Bring candles," Cousin Dempster sung out.

"But the candlesticks--we have not got one in the house," says his wife.

Then everybody laughed, and Cousin Dempster laughed loudest of all.

"Find something," says he, "for we must have light."

The waiter, says he, "Yes, sir, we'll do our best," and out he went.

By and by he comes back, and all the rest of the waiters with him. Every
one had a stone beer bottle in each hand, from which a tall white candle
rose like a steeple to a church. There was not a smile on their faces.

City waiters are never expected to smile, but each man set his two
bottles down on the table, and drew back.

Dempster burst out laughing; the rest burst out too; some giggled, some
choked, some pealed out the fun that was in them like wedding bells.

Everybody laughed except me and an elegant young gentleman, with blue
eyes and a soft beard, that sat next me. He stared in my face, and I
would have stared in his, only I couldn't bring myself to look in his
eyes.

Oh, sisters, it was dreadful! I had got into that young girl's place and
she was in mine, and a teinty bit of court-plaster that I had put on the
corner of my mouth, where the skin had been a trifle rubbed, was
sticki