little tiger Nina would be if her jealousy was
aroused--no help for me but flight. Yes, Saunders, you needn't wait."

Bertram's servant withdrew; and taking his mother's letter out of its
envelope, the young man proceeded to acquaint himself with its contents.
They interested him, not a little, but deeply. The color flushed up into
his face as he read. He made one or two strong exclamations, finally he
laughed aloud. His laugh was excited and full of good humor.

"By Jove! the mother never thought of a better plot. Beatrice--and
fortune. Beatrice, and an escape into the bargain from all my worries.
Poor mater! She does not know that that six hundred of hers has only
just scraped me through my most pressing liabilities. But a small dip
out of Beatrice Meadowsweet's fortune will soon set me on my feet. The
mater's wishes and mine never so thoroughly chimed together as now. Of
course I'll do it. No fear on that point. I'll write off to the dear old
lady, and set her heart at rest, by this very post. As to leave, I must
manage that somehow. The mother is quite right. With a girl like
Beatrice there is no time to be lost. Any fellow might come over to
Northbury and pick her up. Why, she's perfectly splendid. I knew I was
in love with her--felt it all along. Just think of my patrician mother
giving in, though. Well, nothing could suit me better."

Bertram felt so excited that he paced up and down his room, and even
drank off a brandy and soda, which was not in his usual line, for he was
a sober young fellow enough.

As he walked up and down he thought again of that night when he had last
seen Beatrice. How splendid she had looked in her boat on the water; how
unreserved, and yet how reticent she was; how beautiful, and yet how
unconscious of her beauty. What a foil she made to that dreadful little
Matty Bell!

Bertram laughed as he remembered Matty's blushes and affected giggles
and simpers. He conjured up the whole scene, and when he recalled poor
Mrs. Bell's frantic efforts to get the white boat away from the green,
his sense of hilarity doubled. Finally he thought of his walk home, of
the meditations which had occupied his mind, and last of all of the girl
in the gray dress who had put her arms round his neck, laid her head on
his breast, and whose lips he had passionately kissed. That head! He
felt a thrill now as he remembered the sheen of its golden locks, and he
knew that the kisses he had given this girl had been