"And do you remember these trifles?" he repeated. "How strange! It shows
you have the heart of a child still. I love to hear you recall them."

"I could fill a volume with these reminiscences. I believe I will write
one, one of these days, and you shall be the hero."

A merry altercation at the door attracted our attention. Dr. Harlowe was
endeavoring to persuade Madge to go back with him, but she strenuously
refused.

"I never could stay more than ten days at a time in one place in my
life. Besides, I have worn out my welcome, I know I have. Your house is
not new. It jars too much when I walk. I saw Mrs. Harlowe looking
ruefully at some cracked glass and china, and then at me, as much as to
say, 'It is all your doings, you young romp.'"

"Very likely," cried the doctor, laughing heartily, "but it only makes
me more anxious to secure you. You are a safety-valve in the house. All
my misdemeanors escape unreproved in the presence of your superior
recklessness."

I never saw any one enjoy a jest more than Dr. Harlowe. He really liked
the dashing and untamable Madge. He was fond of young companions; and
though his wife was such a _superior woman_, and such an incomparable
housekeeper, there was nothing very exhilarating about her.

"I can't go," said Madge; "I must stay and take care of Gabriella."

"If you play any of your wild pranks on her again," said the doctor, "it
were better for you that you had never been born."

With this threat he departed; and it seemed as if a dozen people had
been added to the household in the person of the dauntless Meg. I never
saw any one with such a flow of animal spirits, with so much oxygen in
their composition. I should think the vital principle in such a
constitution would burn out sooner than in others, like a flame fed by
alcohol. She was older than myself, and yet had no more apparent
reflection than a child of five years old. It was impossible to make her
angry. The gravest rebuke, the most cutting sarcasm, were received with
a merry twinkle of the eye or a rich swell of laughter. She was bold,
masculine, wild, and free, and I feared her as much as I would the
wild-cat, after whom the doctor had christened her,--yet there was
something about her that I liked. It was probably the interest she
professed in me, which must have been genuine. It was impossible for her
to affect any thing.

Who would dream of any one sporting with such a man as Mr. Regulus? Yet
she treated h