f his white hand
towards the burden carried by his follower, resumed more lightly: "I
have brought--er--few trifles and gewgaws for my ward--subject, of
course, to your rules and discretion. They include some--er--dainties,
free from any deleterious substance, as I am informed--a sash--a ribbon
or two for the hair, gloves, mittens, and a nosegay--from which, I
trust, it will be HER pleasure, as it is my own, to invite you to cull
such blossoms as may suit your taste. Boy, you may set them down and
retire!"

"At the present moment," stammered Miss Tish, "Miss Stannard is engaged
on her lessons. But"--She stopped again, hopelessly.

"I see," said the colonel, with an air of playful, poetical
reminiscence--"her lessons! Certainly!

'We will--er--go to our places,
With smiles on our faces,
And say all our lessons distinctly and slow.'

Certainly! Not for worlds would I interrupt them; until they are done,
we will--er--walk through the classrooms and inspect"--

"No! no!" interrupted the horrified, principal, with a dreadful
presentiment of the appalling effect of the colonel's entry upon the
class. "No!--that is--I mean--our rules exclude--except on days of
public examination"--

"Say no more, my dear madam," said the colonel politely. "Until she is
free I will stroll outside, through--er--the groves of the Academus"--

But Miss Tish, equally alarmed at the diversion this would create at the
classroom windows, recalled herself with an effort. "Please wait here
a moment," she said hurriedly; "I will bring her down;" and before the
colonel could politely open the door for her, she had fled.

Happily unconscious of the sensation he had caused, Colonel Starbottle
seated himself on the sofa, his white hands resting easily on the
gold-headed cane. Once or twice the door behind him opened and closed
quietly, scarcely disturbing him; or again opened more ostentatiously
to the words, "Oh, excuse, please," and the brief glimpse of a flaxen
braid, or a black curly head--to all of which the colonel nodded
politely--even rising later to the apparition of a taller, demure young
lady--and her more affected "Really, I beg your pardon!" The only result
of this evident curiosity was slightly to change the colonel's attitude,
so as to enable him to put his other hand in his breast in his favorite
pose. But presently he was conscious of a more active movement in the
hall, of the sounds of scuffling, of a high youthful