emarked at
the door; and, on being answered, he had added in a soliloquy, as if not
deigning a second address for a second rebuff,--"It will be quite
impossible to go far, for the freshet has swollen the brooks into
rivers."

Eloise, however, took no notice of the information, and went on her way,
strolled farther than she had intended, and forded a brook because Mr.
St. George had said she could not. Then she sat down under a branching
tree that dropped its leaves about her and into the brook, and began to
read the "Romaunt of the Rose": at least, I fancy that was the book she
had. While she remained, the brook swirling ever louder between the
pauses, the sunset ran red in the sky and warned her to hasten home. But
she disregarded the warning till purple shadows fell softly on the page,
and stars and moon stole out to peer above her shoulder and see what it
was that so entranced the maiden. Rising hurriedly, she moved away; and
only when she had crossed two or three of the stepping-stones did she
perceive, on looking down, that, while she had been reading, the water
had risen above the next ones with a depth that the failing light
forbade her to see. Standing there, and bending dizzily forward to guess
the strength of the dark stream now so loudly and rapidly rushing by,
there came a noise like a bursting water-spout; suddenly her waist was
seized, and she was swept back to the shore. The next instant, with a
seething sound, a great uprooted oak tore along the very spot on which
she had stood.

"Seeking danger for the pleasure of escape?" said a cool voice in her
ear, as her feet were planted on dry land. "A little excitement spices
our still life so well!"

"Mr. St. George! how dare you?" cried Eloise, freeing herself.

"What would you have had me do? Should I have stood here, letting I dare
not wait upon I would, like the cat i' the adage, while the oak caught
and rushed you off to sea? Too big a broomstick for such a little
witch!"

"You should not have been here at all, Sir!"

"There shall be thanks in all the churches, next Sunday, that I was."

"At least, Sir, I can spare further aid."

"Play Undine and the Knight on the island? It wouldn't be at all
safe,--it wouldn't be proper, you know," said Mr. St. George, raising
his eyebrows. "The dam that shuts up the irrigating waters broke an hour
ago," added he, in the tone of another person. "I sent servants to find
you, in every direction, and happened this