lness? Grant that you
love Manetho,--what harm, save to his revengeful passion, could result
from thwarting him?

Salome acted oddly on this occasion,--it would seem, irrationally. But
that which appears to the spectator but a trivial modification may
have vital weight with the actor. Had Manetho taken Balder, for
example, Salome might have pursued another and more intelligible
course than the one she actually took. She hurried out of the door and
caught Manetho by the arm before he was twenty paces on his way. He
turned, savage but frightened, setting down the little girl but not
letting go her hand. She was in her happiest humor, and informed Nurse
that she was to be queen of fairy-land!

Nurse lifted the veil from her face and looked steadfastly at Manetho
with her one eye. It was enough,--he saw in her but a hideous
object,--would never know her for the bright girl he had once
professed to love. Salome gave one sob, containing more of womanly
emotion than could be written down in many words, and then was quiet
and self-possessed. Manetho did not offer to escape, but stood on his
guard; half prepared, however,--from something in the woman's
manner,--to find her a confederate.

"S'e come too?" chirped the unconscious little maiden.

But Manetho's attention was turned to some words that Salome was
writing in a little blank-book which she always carried in her pocket
She offered to help him carry off the child, on condition of being
herself one of the party!

He looked narrowly at the woman, but could make nothing by his
scrutiny. Was it love for the child that prompted her behavior? No;
for she could easily have raised the neighborhood against him. She
completely puzzled him, and she would give no explanations. What if he
should accept her offer? She would be an advantage as well as an
inconvenience. The child would have the care to which it had been
accustomed, and Manetho would thus be spared much embarrassment. When
the woman's help became superfluous, it would not be difficult to give
her the slip.

There was small leisure for reflection. An agreement was made,--on
Salome's part, with a secret sense of intense triumph, not unmixed
with fear and pain. She caught up Master Balder and his dandelions,
kissed and hugged him violently, and locked him into the nursery;
where he was found some hours afterwards by his father, in a state of
great hunger and indignation. But the little dark-haired maiden was no
more.