. T. Got no brothers or sisters, and all that sort of
thing; so we look after her a good deal. Sometimes she's with us,
sometimes she's not. Was south all winter: got back while I was up there
with you."

Now what the deuce did I say that for? It'll brush up his rusty mental
machinery, and help him to recall what she wants forgotten. Just so; of
course.

"Yes, I remember. She thought of joining you with Miss Jane. I wish you
had let them come."

"Well, you see, you don't know what these girls are used to; I do. There
were no fit quarters for them at Hodge's. I had gone and written my wife
a lot of rot, pretending his place was much better than it is."

"With your usual unassuming virtue and cheerful candor; yes. We have no
secrets from one another: the limpid stream of confidence flows
unchecked and unpolluted. Just so. But see here, you old hypocrite, if
there is another young woman in the family, you ought to have told me
about her last night, when you were preparing my mind, you know, and
pretending to explain the whole domestic situation.--Great heavens,
who's that?"

We had turned a corner, and come plump on the house; and there on the
piazza, two rods away, sat a rare and radiant maiden, playing cat's
cradle with my eldest son and heir. I can't tell you how she was
dressed; but she was a phantom of delight when thus she broke upon our
sight; a lovely apparition, sent to be Jim Hartman's blandishment. At
least so it seemed, for he stood there and stared like a noble savage.
As when the lightning descends on the giant oak in its primeval
solitude--but I must stop this; she is too near, though she pretends not
to see us yet. So I whispered in low and warning tones:

"Brace up, Jim. She's not the one you met here twelve years ago, who
jilted you at Naples: this one wasn't out of her Fourth Reader then.
Don't get them mixed, or be deceived by a chance resemblance." I thought
it was better to lay his embarrassment on that old affair, you see. But
that was all nonsense: he never saw anybody like Clarice before--how
should he?

"Confound you, Bob," he muttered between his teeth, "so you've been
practising your openhearted innocence on me. Get on with it now, and
finish it up."

He pulled himself together, and I went through the introduction with due
decorum; then I got away as soon as I could. You see, I was unmanned by
the spectacle of so much young emotion, and somewhat exhausted by my own
recent exertions. I