HE

DURHAM, _July_ 19

O child of fortune, thy name is J. Q. Copley! How did it happen to be
election time? Why did the inns chance to be full? How did aunt Celia
relax sufficiently to allow me to find her a lodging? Why did she fall
in love with the lodging when found? I do not know. I only know Fate
smiles; that Kitty and I eat our morning bacon and eggs together; that I
carve Kitty's cold beef and pour Kitty's sparkling ale at luncheon; that
I go to vespers with Kitty, and dine with Kitty, and walk in the gloaming
with Kitty--and aunt Celia. And after a day of heaven like this, like
Lorna Doone's lover,--ay, and like every other lover, I suppose,--I go to
sleep, and the roof above me swarms with angels, having Kitty under it!

We were coming home from afternoon service, Kitty and I. (I am
anticipating for she was "Miss Schuyler" then, but never mind.) We were
walking through the fields, while Mrs. Benedict and aunt Celia were
driving. As we came across a corner of the bit of meadow land that joins
the stable and the garden, we heard a muffled roar, and as we looked
round we saw a creature with tossing horns and waving tail making for us,
head down, eyes flashing. Kitty gave a shriek. We chanced to be near a
pair of low bars. I hadn't been a college athlete for nothing. I swung
Kitty over the bars, and jumped after her. But she, not knowing in her
fright where she was nor what she was doing; supposing, also, that the
mad creature, like the villain in the play, would "still pursue her,"
flung herself bodily into my arms, crying, "Jack! Jack! Save me!"

"It was the first time she had called me Jack," and I needed no second
invitation. I proceeded to save her,--in the usual way, by holding her
to my heart and kissing her lovely hair reassuringly, as I murmured: "You
are safe, my darling; not a hair of your precious head shall be hurt.
Don't be frightened."

She shivered like a leaf. "I am frightened," she said. "I can't help
being frightened. He will chase us, I know. Where is he? What is he
doing now?"

Looking up to determine if I need abbreviate this blissful moment, I saw
the enraged animal disappearing in the side door of the barn; and it was
a nice, comfortable Durham cow,--that somewhat rare but possible thing, a
sportive cow!

"Is he gone?" breathed Kitty from my waistcoat.

"Yes, he is gone--she is gone, darling. But