(09 
 
QUEEN TITANIA 
 
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QUEEN TITANIA 
 
 HJALMAE H. BOYESEN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS 
 
 743 AND 745 BKOADWAT 
 1881 
 
COPTRIGHT, 
 
 1881, 
 BY CHAKLES SCRLBNER S SONS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 QUEEN TITANIA 3 
 
 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE 161 
 
 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE 187 
 
 M737265 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 MR. QUINTUS BODILL, as had been intimated 
 by his mother at the time when he made his 
 debut in existence, was an exceedingly hand 
 some fellow. You observed at once that he 
 was no crude homo novus, whose culture and pol 
 ish are only skin-deep. There was something in 
 the frank directness of his gaze, the soft mod 
 elling of his features, and the quiet and uncon 
 scious dignity of his demeanor which seemed 
 to indicate a long transmission of inherited 
 good-breeding. I would not say that his face 
 was in anywise remarkable, except, perhaps, 
 for its absolute purity and sweetness ; its in 
 nocence was at times almost touching, and yet, 
 if you looked closely, you would detect amid 
 all that blond and downy youthfulness a very 
 definite hint of resolution and courage. The 
 
4 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 passengers on board the Melanesia, however, 
 were not sufficiently interested in Quintus 
 Bodill s face to make these minute investiga 
 tions. The absorbing topic at the time to 
 which I refer it was the seventh day from 
 Queenstown happened to be a funeral which 
 had just occurred during the morning. A young 
 Englishwoman, of the second cabin, had died 
 the day before, leaving a four-year-old little 
 daughter, who was just now being handed 
 around and inspected by some officiously be 
 nevolent ladies. Quintus, who sat on a camp- 
 stool, leaning against the gunwale, smoking 
 reflectively, watched the distressed and fright 
 ened child with lively sympathy ; and thought 
 -of his own little sister at home, of whose ap 
 pearance this bewildered waif remotely re 
 minded him. What was to become of her? 
 To whom did she now belong? "Was there 
 any one on the other side of the ocean await 
 ing her arrival ? The wind whistled and sang 
 in the cordage of the ship, the huge sail gave 
 an occasional flap and again bulged out before 
 the breeze, the waves rose with a rushing 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 5 
 
 rhythm up to the very gunwale, then sank 
 away with a wrathful hiss; and, down some 
 where out of sight, the machinery kept labor 
 ing with a throbbing, nightmarish energy. 
 But through it all the thought of the homeless 
 and motherless child continued to haunt the 
 warm-hearted Norseman. Presently he saw 
 the captain a shaggy naval bachelor, with ter 
 rific eyes and beard, and a voice like a bas 
 soon approaching the group of ladies who 
 were temporarily interesting themselves in the 
 little girl, and stretching out his arms to take 
 her. But as he was stooping to her level, she 
 gave a scream of terror, darted across the 
 deck, and, sobbing, hid her face in the folds of 
 Quintus s overcoat. He was quite startled at 
 the suddenness of her motion, but soon began 
 to find pleasure in the situation. He tried to 
 lift her up on his lap, but she clung convul 
 sively to his knee, and sobbed piteously when 
 he bent down over her, spoke soothingly to 
 her, and ran his fingers caressingly through 
 her long, yellow ringlets. 
 
 All day long, with a wholly irrational devo- 
 
6 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 tion, the little girl followed at Quintus s heels 
 like a little dog, and pursued him wherever he 
 went. She sat on his lap at dinner, and would 
 suffer no one else to come near her, and in the 
 evening, when the stewardess came to take her 
 away, she gave such a terrified shriek that he 
 could not find it in his heart to part with her. 
 He then retired with her into a corner of the 
 saloon, and began to ask her questions about 
 her father, mother, and her past life ; but be 
 yond the fact that her name was Tita, he could 
 not coax from her a single item of intelligence. 
 She answered, in a half -injured manner, " yes " 
 to questions which mutually contradicted each 
 other, making her father, for instance, simul 
 taneously a resident of England, of America, 
 and of heaven, and being apparently not in the 
 least troubled by the inconsistencies of her 
 testimony. It was very puzzling indeed, her 
 face seemed to say, but she could not help it. 
 
 During the whole remainder of the voyage, 
 Quintus and Tita were inseparable compan 
 ions. From her elevated position on his arm, 
 with her little, soft cheek pressed tightly 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 7 
 
 against his, and her chubby arms clasped 
 resolutely around his neck, she felt safe in de 
 fying the whole world. She slept in the upper 
 berth in his state-room, and would never con 
 sent to close her eyes before he had seated 
 himself on the very uncomfortable ladder and 
 taken both her hands in his. She seemed in 
 everything to look upon him as the natural 
 substitute for her lost mother, and Quintus, 
 who was an absurdly tender-hearted fellow, 
 was so touched by her dependence upon him, 
 and so flattered, too, by her undisguised pref 
 erence for him, that it hardly occurred to 
 him to throw off her yoke, or to rebel against 
 her despotic authority. He was perfectly well 
 aware that there were those among the pas 
 sengers who were amusing themselves at 
 his expense, and he occasionally happened to 
 overhear remarks which made him marvel at 
 the possible baseness of human nature. Thus 
 he came very near having an unpleasant en 
 counter with Sir Walter Thorndowne, who, in 
 Bodill s hearing, declared, between his yawns, 
 that he had no belief in disinterested gener- 
 
8 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 osity, and that in all probability " the young 
 polar bear " was more closely related to Tita 
 than he cared to confess. On the other hand, 
 Mr. Diggers, who had been canvassing Eu 
 rope in the interest of some patent concern or 
 other, and persisted in coming to lunch in a 
 gorgeous dressing-gown, assured Mr. Bodill 
 that he was delighted, by George ! to make the 
 acquaintance of a gentleman who had a heart 
 under his waistcoat, and who was not afraid to 
 take a hand where the odds were against him. 
 He even carried his generosity so far as to 
 propose to the captain that a subscription be 
 taken up for the benefit of the child, pledging 
 himself for thirty dollars, but refusing to head 
 the list, because he knew that his plebeian 
 name would prejudice the foreign passengers 
 against the undertaking. The captain accepted 
 this hint, and collected four hundred and fifty- 
 five dollars for Tita, the sum to be deposited 
 temporarily with the steam-ship company until 
 it should be drawn by Tita herself, or by some 
 one legally entitled to compensation for her 
 support. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 9 
 
 It was on a sunny morning in May, 186 , 
 that the Melanesia cast anchor in the harbor of 
 New York. Quintus was standing on deck, 
 gazing with joyous expectation at the great city 
 which was soon to receive him. He had half 
 forgotten Tita, whom he was holding on his 
 arm, and who, with an air of supreme content 
 ment, kept rubbing her cheek against his, and 
 occasionally pointing with delighted ejacula 
 tions at the queer men and women who were 
 rushing about with bundles and boxes in their 
 hands, gesticulating wildly and shouting in 
 unknown tongues to the apathetic sailors and 
 officers. The cabin passengers were already 
 pressing forward to board the tug-boat, and a 
 pang suddenly shot through Quintus s heart at 
 the thought that th$ hour of parting was now 
 at hand. Tita was to be placed in an orphan 
 asylum in New York, the captain had told him, 
 until some one claimed her, and if no one 
 claimed her, she would be trained for a servant 
 or a seamstress, or something of the sort, or 
 perhaps be sent West, as soon as she would be 
 able to shift for herself. Of her mother noth- 
 
10 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 ing definite could be ascertained, except that 
 she came from London, and, under the name of 
 Mrs. Marion Hulbert, had taken a second-cabin 
 ticket for New York. 
 
 As Quintus stood sadly revolving these 
 thoughts in his head, the captain (for whom 
 Tita had an ineradicable aversion) made his 
 appearance, accompanied by the stewardess, 
 who held out her arms coaxingly to the child, 
 promising her jelly, and making her all sorts 
 of tempting proposals if she would come to her. 
 But Tita was as much proof against bribes as 
 she was against argument ; she only responded 
 with a determined little pout, and clung the 
 more closely to Bodill s neck. Quintus felt 
 inexpressibly wretched ; he would have liked 
 to yield to the impulse of his heart to take 
 upon himself the responsibility for Tita s fu 
 ture. But what could he, a penniless bache 
 lor of twenty, do with a child of four, and 
 what sort .of a future could he possibly prepare 
 for her? With this reflection Quintus reso 
 lutely steeled his heart, and with a huge effort 
 tremblingly unclasped Tita s tiny hands, which 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 11 
 
 yet clung about his neck with, a desperate per 
 sistence. The stewardess, who was not troub 
 led with much delicacy of feeling, hastened to 
 assist him, and with one rough wrench trans 
 ferred the reluctant child to her own ample 
 embrace. Quintus seized his valise, which 
 was lying at his feet, and was about to make 
 his escape. From the bottom of his heart he 
 detested himself, and, in his innocent Norse 
 fashion, wondered whether God would ever 
 forgive him for thus basely deserting one of 
 His little ones. It was this thought, perhaps, 
 or possibly a mere natural impulse of pity, 
 which made him pause and turn about once 
 more. "Let me kiss you good-by, at least, 
 my child," he said, putting his arm around 
 Tita s neck and pressing her closely to him. 
 She looked so irresistibly lovely with the quiv 
 ering little lips, the great tears in her eye 
 lashes, and the air of profound injury in her 
 whole expression, that all Quintus s rational 
 reflections evaporated. The tears now came 
 faster and faster, and surrendering herself 
 completely to her grief, Tita sobbed on his 
 
12 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 bosom as if her small heart was wounded be 
 yond the possibility of repair. 
 
 " I want to do with you," she managed 
 to say between her sobs. " I want to do with 
 Twint." 
 
 " Oh, you precious child ! " cried Bodill, feel 
 ing now no longer ashamed of his- tears. " Yes, 
 you shall go with Twint." 
 
 With heedless haste he rushed forward to 
 the stairway, from which he boarded the^tug- 
 boat. And there he stood, amid the wondering 
 passengers, holding on his arm his tiny charge. 
 He was not aware, this unsuspicious Quintus, 
 what an amount of possible misery and bliss 
 he was importing into the United States of 
 America in the diminutive person of Tita. 
 
II. 
 
 AFTER having left his prospective address at 
 the steam-ship office, and satisfied the authori 
 ties that he was a proper person to be, at least 
 temporarily, intrusted with the care of a child, 
 Quintus betook himself with his charge to Jer 
 sey City, where a former groom of his father s, 
 named Syvert Hanson, was said to be living. 
 This Hanson had been one of Quintus s boyish 
 admirations, on account of a rare and manly ac 
 complishment he possessed of spitting through 
 his teeth without the slightest movement of the 
 lips. He had, however, vanished long ago from 
 his friend s horizon ; but reports of his extra 
 ordinary prosperity had, from time to time, 
 reached the family through Hanson s relatives, 
 who took pains to convey the impression that 
 Syvert was now as big a man as Colonel Bodill 
 himself, and perhaps a little bigger. Quintus, 
 who had been accustomed to hear marvellous 
 tales of America, and had a vague impression 
 
 13 
 
14 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 that the common logic of human life was not 
 applicable to republics, would, therefore, hard 
 ly have been surprised if he had been informed 
 that Hanson was about to take up his residence 
 in the "White House. As it was, he counted 
 mightily on the ex-groom s influence, and fully 
 expected to be introduced by him into the best 
 society of the city. 
 
 It was about two o clock in the afternoon 
 when, after a long and futile search, he found 
 Hanson s cottage. Its architectural unpreten- 
 tiousness was a little disappointing to Bodill, 
 but he consoled himself with the reflection 
 that, in all likelihood, the stability of the re 
 public required that its greatest citizens should 
 be conspicuous, not for vulgar luxury and show, 
 but for stern simplicity and uprightness. The 
 idea was certainly a beautiful one, and Hanson 
 was worthy of all honor for adhering to it so 
 rigidly. With a palpitating heart he approach 
 ed the front door, deposited Tita, who had just 
 waked up from a sound nap, on the steps, and 
 proceeded to whip the dust off his shoes with 
 his handkerchief. He then arranged his hair 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 15 
 
 hastily, took Tita by the hand, and rang the 
 door bell. A slatternly-looking blonde woman, 
 with a baby on her arm. opened the door and 
 asked him rather gruffly what he wanted. If 
 there was any patent he was pedling, she 
 would tell him beforehand that she had no 
 time to look at it. The young man answered, 
 with extreme deference, that he had nothing to 
 sell, but that he had letters to Mr. Hanson 
 from his relatives in Norway, and that he was 
 very desirous to deliver them in person. His 
 name was Quintus Boclill, and he had himself 
 had the pleasure of Mr. Hanson s acquaintance 
 in his childhood. 
 
 "Good Lord!" cried the woman, in Nor 
 wegian, hurriedly depositing the baby on the 
 floor and grasping Quintus by the hand, " are 
 you Quintus Boclill, Colonel Bodill s son? 
 How glad Syvert will be to see you ! Walk in, 
 sir, walk in. Don t mind the looks of things j 
 please. The children have it all their own way 
 here in the morning. And this is your little 
 daughter, I suppose. And I, who didn t know 
 you were married even ; and not Syvert either. * 
 
16 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 "I am not married/ said Quintus, blushing 
 to the edge of his hair. 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed Mrs. Hanson, in a more 
 subdued tone. 
 
 She looked at her visitor with a sort of blunt 
 kindliness which would have been amusing to 
 any one less finely organized than Quintus was. 
 He writhed under her imputation, which was 
 too subtle to allow of a defence ; moreover he 
 felt that by the embarrassment of his man 
 ner he was accumulating inferential evidence 
 against himself. 
 
 " Tita is not my daughter," he managed at 
 last to stammer, as he seated himself on a car 
 pet-covered lounge of loud coloring. " I mere 
 ly picked her up on the steamship " 
 
 " Oh yes, yes ; I understand," interrupted 
 Mrs. Hanson, with a smile of undisguised skep 
 ticism. " She is a beautiful child anyway, and 
 likely as not you are quite proud of her. Seems 
 to me she features you consid able." 
 
 Quintus, with a little superfluous show of 
 dignity, rose to take his leave. She, however, 
 entirely unconscious that she had given offence, 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 17 
 
 urged him to stay to supper, as Sjvert would 
 then have returned. He yielded reluctantly, 
 because he knew of nothing else to do ; and 
 learned from the intermittent conversation of 
 the hostess during the next three hours that 
 Mr. Hanson was not a member of the cabinet 
 at Washington, nor even mayor of New York, 
 but a box-maker for the great publishing firm 
 of J. C. Dimpleton & Co., in the city. The 
 republican simplicity of his household thus 
 became less enigmatical. A va^t edifice of 
 heaven-scaling aspirations which Quintus had 
 during the voyage been erecting on the basis 
 of Hanson s hypothetical eminence now tum 
 bled down over his head. He evidently had 
 nothing to hope from Hanson except, perhaps, 
 a kindly greeting and some practical advice, of 
 which he was sadly in need. 
 
 About six o clock Hanson arrived, and by 
 his mere appearance made Bodill feel the ut 
 ter absurdity of his expectations. He was, to 
 be sure, an honest-looking man, rough and 
 square-built, loud in his manners, and, on the 
 whole, a very slight and perfectly intelligible 
 
18 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 modification of the former groom, whom Quin- 
 tus had admired twelve years ago for qual 
 ities which now no longer commanded his ad 
 miration. One conspicuous change, however, 
 seemed to have taken place in Hanson since 
 his transplanting into American soil he had 
 learned to think. His vocabulary, though 
 neither choice nor abundant, was certainly 
 energetic and expressive, and indicated that 
 his thought, which formerly had rarely risen 
 above the sphere of the stable, had gained a 
 much wider range. He had, especially, very 
 definite opinions on politics, and expressed 
 with much confidence what he would have 
 done in a certain recent emergency, in case he 
 had been President, until Quintus, who in his 
 Norse simplicity was quite impressed by such 
 magnificent talk, began to wonder whether the 
 President might not have a personal grudge 
 against Hanson, since he so persistently neg 
 lected to consult him. The latter, greatly en 
 couraged by his guest s impressibility, now 
 began to patronize him more conspicuously, 
 promised him the benefit of his protection, 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 19 
 
 unfolded his plan for the conduct of the war 
 (which was then in progress), and aroused 
 again in Quintus s bosom all the expectations 
 to which he had, but a moment ago, bidden 
 a reluctant farewell. After all, Hanson might 
 be at the same time a box-maker, and an im 
 portant personage in the republic. Very likely 
 that was the peculiarity of republics, that men, 
 after having been divested of the insignia of 
 office, returned to their former obscurity, with 
 a chance, however, of being again as suddenly 
 raised to the pinnacle of glory. "Was not Cin- 
 cinnatus taken from the plough to be made dic 
 tator of Kome ? And President Lincoln, who 
 was then occupying the "White House, had he 
 not been a rail-splitter ? Why might not a 
 box-maker, then, be suddenly called from his 
 boxes and charged to organize a cabinet? 
 Hanson promptly rose to his former eminence 
 in Quintus s estimation, and he was not a lit 
 tle pleased when the great man proposed to 
 him that he and Tita should take, at a moder 
 ate rent, the two spare rooms upstairs, which 
 had recently been furnished for the purpose of 
 
20 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 accommodating a lodger. Mrs. Hanson prom 
 ised to look after the little girl while Mr. Bo- 
 dill was at his business, and considering the 
 old friendship of the families (old Colonel Bo- 
 dill ought to have heard that remark, Quintus 
 reflected, smiling), she would charge but a trifle 
 for her extra trouble. The bargain was read 
 ily concluded, and the two European innocents 
 were immediately installed in their new abode. 
 
 The next day Mr. Hanson proved the value 
 of his protection by introducing Quintus to 
 his employer, Mr. Dimpleton, who seemed to 
 be greatly pleased with the young Norseman s 
 appearance, and, after some parley, engaged 
 him at a salary of forty dollars a month as 
 clerk in his wholesale department. The same 
 evening Quintus wrote a jubilant letter to the 
 family at home, in which he declared that he 
 had mounted the lowest round of the ladder of 
 fortune, and that he had now a fair chance of be 
 coming anything except President of the United 
 States, from which office his foreign birth ex 
 cluded him a fact which he greatly regretted. 
 
 About Tita, however, he did not write a word. 
 
III. 
 
 THE first four years of Bodill s sojourn in 
 the land of liberty were extremely uneventful. 
 His time was chiefly occupied in writing busi 
 ness letters, and in becoming Americanized, 
 which latter process is, to be sure, not a con 
 scious act, but a slow psychological fermen 
 tation which gradually changes one s original 
 Old World substance into something rich and 
 new and strange. Quintus, at all events, was 
 satisfied that his metamorphosed self, at the 
 end of the four years, was a finer and more 
 valuable article than the primitive Norse self, 
 which he brought over in the Melanesia. He 
 looked back with supreme pity upon the naive 
 notions of the world which he then entertain 
 ed, smiled at his exalted opinions of Hanson 
 (whose patronage he now received with good- 
 humored persiflage), and, on the whole, treated 
 the still surviving remnant of his Norse per 
 sonality as a younger and slightly weak-minded 
 
 21 
 
22 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 brother who stood in constant need of his su 
 perior protection and counsel. 
 
 To Tita, on the other hand, the first years of 
 her transatlantic existence were crowded with 
 important events. In the first place, she dis 
 played a singular tenacity of purpose in out 
 growing, every five or six months, her frocks, 
 her shoes, and her stockings, not to speak of 
 those little garments which (according to fem 
 inine notions) have to be embroidered all over, 
 even though they are never meant to be seen ; 
 and Mrs. Hanson, who understood that she 
 had carte-blanche in providing for Tita s ward 
 robe, indulged her taste for finery to an extent 
 which sometimes made Quintus groan, and 
 would have betrayed him into the use of ener 
 getic language, if he had not been the kindest 
 and most good-natured of men. However, Tita 
 was so daintily made, so soft and sweet and 
 dimpled, that nothing could really be too good 
 for her. Her vanity ought not to be encour 
 aged, he would often reason : and the next day, 
 very likely, he paid for a blue silk sash, or a 
 plumed hat (which was miraculously becom- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 23 
 
 ing), or a lace-covered little parasol, fit for 
 Queen Titania to carry. What wonder, then, 
 that Tita was well satisfied with the American 
 republic! Yet, to do her justice, there were 
 other things which she valued more highly 
 than ornamental millinery. She always had a 
 vehement kiss and embrace for Quintus every 
 evening when he returned from his business, 
 and she could never be induced by Mrs. Han 
 son to close her eyes before Quint had pre 
 sented himself at her bed and had submitted to 
 being smothered with caresses. Then there 
 was inevitably a little story with a pointed 
 moral, whereupon followed a long and affec 
 tionate coaxing for another, and still another, 
 until the long, dark lashes began to droop, and 
 the obedient squirrel children, and the naughty 
 fairy who received such summary punishment, 
 and the^refractory little bird that found such a 
 tragic end under the cat s claw, all joined in 
 a confused procession, underwent queer trans 
 formations, and hovered away into dreamland. 
 I am extremely sorry to record the fact that 
 Tita sometimes was naughty. She had, not 
 
24 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 infrequently, violent disputes with Syvert Han 
 son, Jr., a young man of her own age, and 
 if he did not yield to persuasion, she would 
 adopt more serious measures, as, for instance, 
 boxing his ears or pulling his hair. Mrs. 
 Hanson would then interfere in her son s be 
 half, and the slate which hung over Quintus s 
 desk would then in the evening contain the 
 sad record of Tita s misdemeanors. On such 
 evenings there were no story and no "good 
 night kiss," even though it nearly broke Quin 
 tus s heart to hear Tita calling him with a 
 voice that gradually grew feebler as she sob 
 bed herself to sleep. It occurred to her one 
 day, when her conscience was not quite at ease, 
 to break the " misdemeanor slate," which she 
 regarded as the cause of all her sufferings ; but 
 it is needless to say that the ingenuity of Mrs. 
 Hanson soon provided another. Poor Tita, 
 how she suffered during the long hours of sus 
 pense while she stood weeping at the door lis 
 tening for Quint s well-known footsteps in the 
 hall! And with what remorseful tenderness 
 she flung herself upon his neck as he entered, 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 25 
 
 and confessed all her misdoings, anxious only 
 to forestall the testimony of the dreadful slate. 
 Quintus, then, in spite of his stern resolu 
 tions to the contrary, would gradually relent, 
 and, while half-unconsciously returning her ca r 
 resses, would wring her little heart by his 
 sham grief over her monstrous wickedness. For 
 all that, it must not be supposed that Quintus 
 failed to realize the gravity of the task he had 
 undertaken in becoming responsible for Tita s 
 education. If he erred at all, it was on the 
 side of over-conscientiousness. He read Spen 
 cer, Pestalozzi, and even Kant s " Critique of 
 Pure Eeason," with sole reference to Tita s 
 misdemeanors ; he listened gravely, and with 
 a sincere desire to be enlightened, to the lec 
 tures of reforming monomaniacs, and he even 
 began a system of severe self-scrutiny, hoping, 
 by constant watchfulness of his every thought 
 and act, to become, in time, a worthy example 
 to his ward. 
 
 Curiously enough, it never occurred to Quin 
 tus that Tita was educating him quite as much 
 as he was educating Tita. She gave, by her 
 
26 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 dependence upon him, a value to his life which 
 it had never possessed before. At home, as 
 one of twelve children, he had never flattered 
 himself that he was of much account. He 
 knew perfectly well that he could easily be 
 spared, and that his parents (even though 
 they loved him very sincerely) must find some 
 compensation for his loss in the fact that his 
 departure to seek his fortune in the New 
 World had created a vacancy at their intermi 
 nable dinner- table. He had never distinguished 
 himself either in school or in college, except 
 on a single occasion when he took a prize in 
 Greek; and he had become thoroughly con 
 vinced that he was a mere average mortal, who, 
 as his name indicated, had no other mission in 
 the world than to figure numerically in the 
 census. Now fate had attached another life to 
 his, and accordingly, without reflecting much 
 about it, he rose perceptibly in his own esti 
 mation. All his thoughts and aspirations cen 
 tred in Tita. If he had a new coat made, he 
 enjoyed beforehand the pleasure she would 
 take in watching him from the window as he 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 27 
 
 stalked up the street, conscious of his good 
 appearance, and he would smile a very affec 
 tionate smile to himself and puzzle his tailor 
 as he was just shouting out the numbers of his 
 measure. If sometimes, in crossing the ferry, 
 he saw a vision of wealth and glory unfolding 
 itself in the wintry sky, it was Tita, and always 
 Tita, who was to benefit by his greatness ; it 
 was Tita who was to shine in silks and satins 
 and have the great aristocratic world at her 
 feet ; and he well, he would stand behind 
 Tita s chair and smile and feel happy in her 
 splendor. On Saturday nights, when he was 
 always in the habit of bringing her some tri 
 fling present, he would run up the stairs like 
 a boy to receive her greeting, and she would, 
 with much laughter and coaxing, investigate 
 his pockets, one after another, while he always 
 feigned an exaggerated grief at having forgot 
 ten the accustomed gift; and when finally it 
 was found in some inconspicuous pocket, he 
 would pretend to be greatly surprised, while 
 she would dance triumphantly about him, and 
 hug him, and call him all manner of affection- 
 
28 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 ate names. And Quintus felt so supremely 
 happy that he snatched Tita up in his arms and 
 whirled around the room with her like a mad 
 man. Nevertheless, as I have said, he never 
 reflected upon what he would have been with 
 out Tita. The case seemed hardly suppos- 
 able. Tita as an educator ! How ridiculous ! 
 
IV. 
 
 QUINTUS remained nearly eleven years in the 
 employ of the firm of J. C. Dimple ton & Co. 
 before he made the acquaintance of the head 
 of the house in any but his official capacity. 
 Then a little incident happened which was 
 fraught with greater consequences to Bodill 
 than he ever had anticipated. A certain 
 well-known Greek scholar, Professor P 
 (more remarkable for his skill in concocting 
 text-books than for real learning), was about to 
 publish an edition of the orations of Demos 
 thenes through the firm of Dimpleton & Co- 
 A large package of proof-sheets, already re 
 vised by the editor, had to be opened by Quiii- 
 tus before being returned to the printer, and 
 on casting a glance on the page he discovered 
 what, according to the best authorities, was a 
 false reading. He then began to investigate 
 the text carefully, and found several other evi 
 dences of what he would call either ignorance 
 or very careless editing. 
 
 29 
 
30 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 Kindled with learned zeal, lie seized the 
 proof-sheets and walked rapidly to Mr. Dimple- 
 ton s private office, and asked for the privilege 
 of a moment s conversation. Mr. Dimpleton, 
 who was a solemn and somewhat pompous man, 
 with close-trimmed gray side whiskers and a 
 bald head, raised his eyes questioningly to the 
 clerk and asked rather sharply what he wanted. 
 Quintus explained briefly the mistakes he had 
 discovered, and requested Mr. Dimpleton s per 
 mission to communicate with the editor, as in 
 his opinion it was not consistent with the dig 
 nity of the firm to publish an unscholarly work. 
 Mr. Dimpleton gazed for a moment in blank 
 amazement at his employe. 
 
 "Do you mean to say, then," he said, after 
 having recovered from his amazement, " that 
 you know more about Demosthenes than the 
 professor who has written this book ? " 
 
 " That I cannot say ; but he is evidently not 
 acquainted with the latest criticisms and emen 
 dations of the text." 
 
 "Well, if you wish to communicate with him 
 I have no objection ; but I doubt if you will 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 31 
 
 beat him as easily as you imagine. We have 
 published a number of his text-books, and they 
 have all sold well." 
 
 Quintus withdrew hastily, feeling for the 
 first time in his life a sort of superior pity for 
 Mr. Dimpleton, whom, in spite of his stately 
 demeanor, he could not but regard as a man of 
 crude taste and judgment. He was resolved at 
 any rate to have the errors in the Greek text 
 corrected, and accordingly sat down and wrote 
 
 a plain and respectful letter to Professor P , 
 
 calling his attention to the latest works of Ger 
 man scholars, and, moreover, to some impor 
 tant articles bearing upon the subject in a 
 recent number of a philological journal. The 
 next day he received a telegram, thanking him 
 for his suggestions, and requesting him to stop 
 the stereotyping of the book until the text 
 could be subjected to a second revision. This 
 was very flattering to his scholarly pride, and 
 he treated himself to a bottle of porter at 
 luncheon, in recognition of his services to 
 science and humanity. A man who at the age 
 of thirty-one still read Homer and Demosthenes 
 
32 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 for pastime, and who at a pinch could even 
 himself concoct a respectable Greek hexameter, 
 was, after all, not to be sniffed at, he reflected, 
 smilingly ; he was, in all probability, some 
 what above the average of his kind, and he 
 justly deserved to lunch at seventy-five instead 
 of fifty cents. 
 
 Quintus was in a radiant mood as he again 
 seated himself at his desk, and began, half- 
 mechanically, to open the letters which had 
 arrived by the noon mail. He was so absorbed 
 in his joyous meditations that he failed to ob 
 serve that some one was approaching him from 
 behind, and that a hand was placed on the 
 back of his chair. Suddenly, at the sound of 
 his name, he turned around and saw Mr. Dim- 
 pleton. The publisher seemed to have some 
 thing on his conscience, and seated himself 
 rather uneasily on a lounge inside the railing 
 which bounded Quintus s domain. 
 
 " Mr. Bodill," he began, in his peculiar, con 
 strained manner, in which there was, nowever, 
 a vague intention of friendliness, " I was some 
 what preoccupied yesterday morning when you 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 33 
 
 spoke to me about the Greek text. I am 
 afraid I gave you the impression that I wished 
 to discourage your interest in the concerns of 
 the firm. Such, I assure, you, was not my in 
 tention." 
 
 " I was not discouraged, Mr. Dimpleton," 
 replied Quintus, cheerfully. " My zeal for 
 Greek is never easily discouraged. It is what 
 saves my self-respect when I am inclined to be 
 too modest in my estimate of myself. And 
 
 Professor P , as if he knew my weakness, 
 
 has proven himself a subtle flatterer." 
 
 He handed his chief the telegram which he 
 had just received, and gazed smilingly at his 
 face while he read it. 
 
 "Very gratifying," murmured Mr. Dimple- 
 ton, "very gratifying indeed." 
 
 He took up his hat and stroked it three or 
 four times with the sleeve of his coat. 
 
 " Speaking of Greek," he said, gazing criti 
 cally at the inside of the hat, " it occurred to 
 me that perhaps it might interest you to meet 
 my daughter, who has, I believe, made quite a 
 study of the Greek classics. At all events, if 
 
34 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 you have no previous engagement, we shall 
 expect you to dine with us to-night at seven 
 o clock." 
 
 Quiutus was somewhat nonplussed by this 
 unexpected proposition, but was careful to con 
 ceal his surprise. 
 
 "I shall be very happy," he said, "to make 
 Miss Dimple ton s acquaintance." 
 
 " And remember, seven o clock." 
 
 " I shall not forget." 
 
 After having despatched the business of the 
 day, Quintus accordingly returned home by 
 the ferry a little earlier than usual, made an 
 elaborate toilet (which excited Tita im 
 mensely), and at the appointed hour rang the 
 door-bell of a handsome house in Madison 
 Avenue. The door was promptly flung open 
 by a martial-looking negro in blue-and-yellow 
 livery, who scanned him critically, and finally 
 decided to permit him to enter. Quintus, who 
 very opportunely remembered that the pedi 
 gree of the Bodills dated back to the earls of 
 the ninth century, determined in his heart not 
 to be dazzled, although (to be candid) the som- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 35 
 
 bre magnificence of the parlor, with its enor 
 mous mirrors, its rich, dark curtains, its gilt- 
 framed pictures and artistic decorations, was, 
 to his innocent Norse eyes, marvellously im 
 pressive. A parlor had always, to him, signi 
 fied a very simple arrangement of tables and 
 chairs, inclosed within four walls; the chairs 
 intended for sitting on, and the tables for 
 depositing books, paper-cutters, and other 
 stray objects upon. But this wonderful com 
 plexity of harmoniously blending lines and 
 colors ; this studied combination of effects in 
 carpets, draperies, and in each separate group 
 of furniture ; this subdued and impressive ert- 
 semble indeed the earls of the ninth century 
 themselves would have felt for a moment 
 stunned in Mr. Dimpleton s parlor. 
 
 Quintus somehow derived the impression 
 that Miss Dimpleton, even though she did 
 wear spectacles, and, possibly, short hair, was 
 a lady of taste and refinement. His reflections, 
 however, were cut short by the sudden con 
 sciousness that some one was approaching 
 from one side. He turned quickly and saw a 
 
36 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 young lady, apparently not far advanced in the 
 twenties, holding out her hand to him and 
 bowing in gracious recognition of his greeting. 
 
 " I am very happy to meet you, Mr. Bodill," 
 she said, motioning him to be seated. 
 
 " Have I the honor to speak with Miss Dim- 
 pleton ? " 
 
 " Yes, you certainly have that honor," an 
 swered the young lady, with a frank laugh. 
 
 Quintus had somehow got the spectacles and 
 the short hair so firmly associated with Miss 
 Dimple ton s personality that he could hardly 
 conceal his surprise at the agreeable disap 
 pointment. For Miss Dimpleton, though you 
 would at first sight have pronounced her a 
 sensible girl, about whom there was no non 
 sense, had nothing " emancipated" or unpleas 
 antly aggressive in her manner or appearance ; 
 and yet it occurred to Bodill, as he sat looking 
 quite guilelessly into her pure, handsome face, 
 that she would have made a very nice boy. 
 Especially were the large gray eyes expres 
 sive of a fearless candor which one associates 
 rather with the male than with the female sex. 
 
QUEEN TTTANIA. 37 
 
 The distinctive feature of her face, however, 
 was a fairly well-modelled mouth, about which 
 there was a strangely conscious air. She moved 
 her lips a little too much when she spoke, 
 and always with a certain curious precision. 
 
 "And you are the disguised prince or 
 viking," she was saying, as she seated herself 
 opposite her guest, " whom father has kept 
 concealed for years down in his store without 
 communicating the fact to his family. Now 
 tell me, how can a gentleman of your wild 
 and fierce ancestry tolerate being chained to 
 a writing-desk for so long a time ? Don t 
 your ancestral instincts sometimes awake in 
 you ? Don t you occasionally feel like break 
 ing the furniture ? " 
 
 " Our blood has been very much diluted and 
 our type enfeebled and subdued during the 
 last five or six centuries," he answered, with a 
 pleasant laugh. " I am nothing but a degen 
 erate late-comer, who am conscious of no he 
 roic instincts whatever." 
 
 " In the matter of Greek, however, I am told 
 that you have finely developed critical eyes 
 
38 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 a trait which, by the way, I should never have 
 expected in so close a relative of William the 
 Conqueror." 
 
 " Well, there, you see, you draw a rash con 
 clusion. You, too, for aught you know, may 
 be a relative of some blood-thirsty Saxon bar 
 barian, and yet you have an enthusiasm for 
 Homer which very likely would have been in 
 comprehensible, even to your nearest kin, a 
 dozen generations back." 
 
 " Yery likely. We have all kept pace in our 
 change of tastes and habits. Imagine, in case 
 we had met, say eight centuries ago, how dif 
 ferent we should both have been, and how dif 
 ferent our meeting. You would, of course, 
 have been a Norse viking, with long blond 
 hair, picturesque attire, and predatory habits. 
 I should have been let me see the daughter 
 of some Saxon thane, who sat with my maids 
 and spun the yellow flax the livelong day, and 
 only appeared in the parlor on state occasions. 
 Well, we will say that your arrival were such 
 an occasion, what do you suppose we should 
 have talked about ? " 
 
QUEEN TITAN I A. 39 
 
 " If I came with a peaceful purpose, I should 
 tell you of my adventures on sea and land ; but 
 if, as is more probable, I came intent on mis 
 chief, I should carry you 011 board my ship 
 without consulting your wishes, and you 
 would be very sea-sick on the voyage to Nor 
 way." 
 
 " How dreadful ! " she cried, merrily. " How 
 fortunate that we did not meet in the eleventh 
 century ! " 
 
 "And who knows," he reflected smilingly, 
 " whether I may not do the very same thing in 
 the nineteenth." But aloud he said, while his 
 smile grew so irresistible that she could not 
 help joining, " Worse things may happen to 
 a woman than being carried away to Norway." 
 
 They were now fairly launched on a playful 
 discussion which had yet seriousness enough 
 in it. to make it not wholly unprofitable. Then 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dimple ton appeared, just as the 
 butler pushed back the folding-doors to the 
 dining-room, displaying a table which appealed 
 to all Bodill s senses at once, except that of 
 hearing, this latter sense being kept steadily 
 
40 QUEEN TTTANIA. 
 
 and agreeably busy by Miss Dimpleton. It 
 required no great amount of insight to dis 
 cover that she was the ruling genius of the 
 household ; for the quick way in which she 
 surveyed her father s toilet as he entered, and 
 then sent him an approving little nod, as much 
 as to say that he had done nobly, could only 
 be interpreted to mean that Mr. Dimpleton was 
 naturally too fond of undress, and subjected 
 himself to the inconvenience of frequent toilets 
 out of regard for his daughter s opinion. The 
 butler, too, betrayed some little uneasiness as 
 she paused to take in the total effect of the 
 table, and was apparently relieved when, in the 
 next moment, she was smiling with evident 
 amusement at one of Bodill s remarks. 
 
 Mrs. Dimpleton was that deplorable Ameri 
 can institution, the chronic invalid. She had 
 a pale and withered look, sighed frequently, as 
 if she thought that life was, after all, a weari 
 some affair, and while speaking cast her eyes 
 in an aimless, wandering way up toward the 
 ceiling, as if she sought a solution there of the 
 troubles which perplexed her. She was small 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 41 
 
 and daintily made, and her features bore yet in 
 them a faded memory of their beauty. 
 
 " Jessie tells me that you are such a great 
 scholar, Mr. Bodill," she said, between two sips 
 of the soup. 
 
 " Miss Dimpleton is very kind to say such 
 pleasant things about me," he answered ; " al 
 though I hope, for her sake, that the Kecording 
 Angel was off duty when she said it." 
 
 " You must pardon me if I don t quite under 
 stand you," sighed his hostess. "You must 
 remember I am not learned at all, like you and 
 Jessie." 
 
 "Mr. Bodill only hints that I have exag 
 gerated his scholarship, mother," commented 
 Miss Jessie, from the other side of the table. 
 
 " Now, speaking of scholarship," Mrs. Dim 
 pleton went on, as the waiter was removing the 
 soup-plates, " do you know Jessie there " (she 
 lowered her voice to an almost confidential 
 whisper), "reads and speaks Latin, and Greek, 
 and Hebrew, and Gothic, and Anglo-Saxon, and 
 I don t know how many other outlandish 
 tongues. Her teacher, Mr. Schnabelstein, told 
 
42 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 me she was the greatest genius he had ever 
 known. And only think of it, he was a Ger 
 man professor, and we paid him four dollars 
 an hour. He even said that " 
 
 " Mother, mother," interrupted Miss Jessie, 
 laughingly, " I know by your expression that 
 you are on your favorite theme. Please don t 
 tell Mr. Bodill how that rogue Schnabelstein 
 gave vent to his imagination as a preliminary 
 to obtaining from you a loan of two hundred 
 dollars. When Mr. Bodill finds out what a 
 poor blunderer I am, I shall seem positively 
 ridiculous to him, unless he has the kindness 
 to forget Mr. Schnabelstein s insincere praises." 
 
 " Now, Mr. Bodill," the elder lady resumed, 
 unmindful of her daughter s interruption, " that 
 is the way she is all the time, whenever I 
 say anything about her accomplishments. Of 
 course I can t keep track of all the languages 
 she learns, but I believe the last one she 
 studied was the Crop tic." 
 
 "The Croptic?" repeated Quintus, looking 
 quite puzzled. 
 
 ",0h, mother ! " cried the daughter, in mock 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 43 
 
 despair, in which there was, however, a note 
 of real annoyance ; " I never studied the Crop- 
 tic language, nor the Coptic either. Mr. Bo- 
 dill," she continued, turning to Quintus, "my 
 mother imagines that whenever I mention a 
 thing I necessarily know it. The other day I 
 was reading a French essay with some interest 
 ing references in it to the Copts, and, in en 
 deavoring to tell the substance of it to a friend 
 who was here the other evening, I evidently 
 gave the impression to mother that I was 
 studying Coptic." 
 
 Mr. Dimpleton, who during this conversation 
 had maintained a severely neutral countenance, 
 as if neither the Croptic nor the Coptic in 
 the least concerned him, now raised his clean 
 shaven chin out of his stiff cravat, and inquir 
 ed, in a hushed and solemn voice, whether 
 they had lobsters in Norway ? Mr. Bodill, al 
 though the abruptness of the question struck 
 him as very ludicrous, replied gravely in the 
 affirmative. " And were the Norwegian lobsters 
 very good ? " " They were excellent, thank you." 
 "And did the natives of Norway dress in fur all 
 
44 QUEEN TTTANIA. 
 
 the year round ? " " No, they did not when they 
 went to bed, nor in the ballroom, nor, in fact, 
 on any other occasion, except in midwinter, 
 when they were travelling." ""What were the 
 staples of diet in Norway ? " " They were bread, 
 meat, fish, milk, very much as in the rest of the 
 civilized world " all of which seemed very won 
 derful and surprising to Mr. Dimpleton. Quin- 
 tus was just beginning to feel like a wild man 
 of Borneo, or a polar bear escaped from a men 
 agerie, when his host (as- Quintus suspected, 
 at a hint from his daughter) took pity on him, 
 and suddenly ceased to exhibit his interest in 
 Norway. He had, of course, been under the 
 impression that he was making himself very 
 agreeable, and if he had noticed the slight 
 look of annoyance in Miss Jessie s face, would 
 have been at a loss to account for it. 
 
V. 
 
 
 
 FROM that day Bodill found his position in 
 the house of J. C. Dimpleton & Co. entirely 
 changed. From a simple clerk he became, in 
 a sort of half-acknowledged way, the most 
 trusted and confidential adviser of the firm. 
 Manuscripts were continually submitted for 
 his approval, and his judgment on them, if 
 positively expressed, was always decisive. The 
 firm never rejected what he strongly recom 
 mended, nor accepted for publication what he 
 condemned. In the case of two or three ven 
 turesome undertakings which Mr. Dimpleton 
 would not have touched if Mr. Bodill had not 
 thrown his influence in their favor, the firm 
 had an opportunity to submit his intelligence 
 and his commercial sagacity to the crucial test ; 
 and as both prosperity and an increase of dig 
 nity resulted from the venture, it seemed 
 obvious to the chief of the house that Mr. Bo 
 dill had now fairly earned his title to partner- 
 
 45 
 
46 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 ship in the firm. The offer was accordingly 
 made on very favorable conditions, and, after 
 some hesitation on Bodill s part, accepted. 
 The thought had sometimes occurred to him 
 that it might be Miss Jessie s influence, rather 
 than his own merits, which had so rapidly ad 
 vanced his fortunes, and he was too proud to 
 wish to be indebted to any one for so substan 
 tial a favor. He concluded, however, after 
 much meditation, that all Miss Jessie had 
 done was to furnish the opportunity, which he 
 had himself improved. 
 
 It is needless to say that he was all this time 
 a constant visitor at Mr. Dimpleton s house. 
 He had completely captivated Mrs. Dimpleton, 
 who was less languid and more confidential 
 with him than with any one else. He discov 
 ered, to his great amusement, that this inno 
 cent little lady had a decided taste for wicked 
 French novels, which she read without the 
 faintest suspicion of their impropriety. He 
 half divined that she was a little bit obtuse, 
 but he would not have thought it possible, if 
 his own ears had not convinced him, that any 
 
QU::EN TITANIA. 47 
 
 one could read the books she read without sup 
 plying what was left unexpressed in the text, or 
 comprehending a single one of the veiled allu 
 sions. He also discovered (what was still more 
 amusing) that the daughter was, in a measure, 
 the guardian of her mother s morality; and, 
 indeed, Mrs. Dirnpleton made no secret of the 
 fact that Miss Jessie hid away all the novels 
 which were procured without her permission, 
 or read them herself before allowing her 
 mother to see them. 
 
 "She is such a queer child," said Mrs. Dim- 
 pleton, taking it always for granted that her 
 listener was no less interested in this inex 
 haustible theme than she was herself. " Now, 
 would you believe it, Mr. Bodill, when she was 
 a little girl of six she crept under the bed one 
 day, and lay there crying because she was not a 
 boy ? And when she was only, three years old, 
 she said the cutest things which ever I did 
 hear. She had come in in her little night-gown 
 to kiss me and her father and her uncle good 
 night, and when she had gone the round once, 
 she insisted upon tissing papa adain, and then 
 
48 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 mamma once more, until I was afraid she was 
 catching cold, and carried her off by main 
 force to her nursery. Then I made her kneel 
 down beside her crib to say her prayers. But 
 the little midget was in a contrary mood, and 
 refused to utter a word. She was so stubborn 
 that I knew I should have to give in. So I told 
 her just to ask God to make Jessie a better 
 little girl, and she might go to bed. And what 
 do you think she did ? Down she went on her 
 knees and prayed that Dod would make mamma 
 a better little mamma. Now, wasn t that bright 
 in a child of three? And I assure you she 
 wasn t ten years old before she began to correct 
 my pronunciation and to look after my clothes, 
 as if she had been my mother and not my 
 child." 
 
 It was chiefly his pleasant laugh, his un 
 obtrusive politeness, and, above all, his talents 
 as a listener, which secured Quintus Mrs. Dim- 
 pleton s favor. To gain the approval of the 
 daughter, more pronounced qualities were re 
 quired. Until she made his acquaintance, Miss 
 Jessie had had no very high regard for men. 
 
QTJSEN TITANIA. 49 
 
 Women were in all respects so much more 
 adorable than men : they were attuned to a 
 finer key. In accordance with this theory, 
 Miss Jessie spent the first twenty-two years 
 of her life in falling in love with women, and 
 mostly with those whose attractions, to the 
 coarse masculine vision, were imperceptible. 
 A man, she had hitherto maintained, was only 
 to be tolerated when he was instructive, and 
 she had therefore selected her male acquaint 
 ance with sole reference to her own mental 
 improvement. Quintus, too, she had sought 
 on the same principle, because she desired to 
 profit by his knowledge of Greek. And in this 
 she was not disappointed. The Norseman, to 
 whom this opportunity of refreshing the de 
 lightful impressions of his college days was 
 very welcome, readily consented to a course of 
 reading in Homer, and, from that time forth, 
 spent every Thursday evening with Miss Dim 
 ple ton in Homeric discussion. Jessie began 
 to reflect that a man was, after all, not such an 
 objectionable phenomenon as she had imagined. 
 
 She had never, even with her most adorable 
 4 
 
50 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 female friends, had such a delicious sense of 
 feeling herself completely understood. When 
 Quintus recounted, with much delicacy of per 
 ception, the characteristics of the Greek civili 
 zation, or pointed to the occult and elusive beau 
 ties of the text, she could not quite suppress the 
 thought that the daily companionship of such 
 a man through a long united life was the very 
 ideal of happiness of which she had dreamed. 
 
 When Quintus returned home about mid 
 night from these Homeric diversions, he al 
 ways found Tita cuddled up in a chair, wide 
 awake and excited. She was now sixteen years 
 old, and had a room of her own on the other 
 side of the hall, but she yet persisted in her 
 childish habits, and refused to go to sleep 
 without her good-night kiss. Quintus once, as 
 a joke, sent her one in an envelope, before de 
 parting for Madison Avenue, and told her to 
 go to bed like a sensible little girl ; but when, 
 on reaching home, he paused at her door to 
 listen, he heard a sound of sobbing within. He 
 was for a moment puzzled; then he knocked, 
 but received no answer. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 51 
 
 " Good-night, Tita dear," he said ; " am I 
 not to have my good-night kiss ? " 
 
 The weeping ceased immediately within, and 
 Tita s voice, with a little unnatural tremor in 
 it, answered : 
 
 " You will find it on your writing-desk, in 
 closed in an envelope." 
 
 " She is a child yet, God bless her," mur 
 mured Quintus, with a sigh of relief, as he 
 entered his study, and with a meditative smile 
 opened Tita s note with the kiss duly inclosed. 
 For better preservation, it was wrapped in red 
 tissue-paper. The note read as follows : 
 
 1 QUINTUS BODTLL, Esq. : 
 
 " DEAR SIR : Inclosed please find a good-night kiss from 
 the undersigned. 
 
 "Yours truly, 
 
 "T. HULBERT." 
 
 That " T. Hulbert " was delicious. Quintus 
 flung himself back in his chair, pressed the 
 dear little note to his lips, and sat for half an 
 hour smiling the kind of smile which is not 
 irreconcilable with tear-suffused eyes. Tita s 
 helpless and pathetic indignation reminded 
 
52 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 him of the wrath of a canary-bird, which ruffles 
 up its feathers and pecks away fearlessly at 
 your fingers, imagining all the while that it is 
 inflicting a dreadful amount of damage. And 
 yet the comparison, in the next moment, struck 
 him as ungenerous. Tita s feelings, whether 
 they were wise or foolish, were certainly a 
 matter of great concern to him, and it was his 
 duty to exert himself to find out the cause 
 even of her strange caprices. That she, who 
 knew him so well, should take offence at an 
 innocent joke, seemed wholly incomprehen 
 sible. That she objected to his Homeric even 
 ings, and was possibly jealous of Miss Dimple- 
 ton, whose praises he had loudly spoken during 
 all the winter, was a thought which did not 
 even occur to him. For had she not, on a hun 
 dred other occasions, urged him to go to thea 
 tres and clubs, and to call on friends, alleging 
 always that she was not at all lonely, but could 
 spend her evenings delightfully with her books? 
 Had she not always been the apple of his eye, 
 and was it possible that any one could ever 
 occupy her place in his affection? Ah, the 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 53 
 
 query was absurd. There was no place in his 
 heart for any one but her. And yet the pos 
 sibility of his marrying Miss Dimpleton had 
 frequently been contemplated, and how could 
 he, as an honorable man, marry her without 
 giving her a place at Tita s side in his heart ? 
 Somehow Miss Dimpleton, with her clear, 
 handsome face, and her bright eyes beaming 
 with intellectual enthusiasm, and the sweet, 
 golden-haired Tita, with her vehement affec 
 tion and her naughty pout, made such a queer 
 contrast that he could not think of both in 
 harmonious juxtaposition as members of the 
 same household. Here was a problem which 
 would have puzzled the seven sages, provided 
 the seven sages ever were in love and were in 
 clined to bestow their affections in equal divis 
 ions upon equally charming women. Quintus, 
 feeling his utter inability to cope with so large 
 a question, resolved to temporize, and to allow 
 circumstances as wide a scope as possible in 
 shaping his destiny. 
 
YI. 
 
 IN spite of his liberal politics, Quintus was, 
 like most Norsemen, a creature of habit. Al 
 though his income and position would long ago 
 have warranted him in removing to a more 
 fashionable locality, he postponed the evil day 
 from year to year, always arguing that, until 
 the time came for bringing Tita out in society, 
 there was no cause for haste. He had reared 
 her tenderly, guarding her from all evil in 
 fluences, and he dreaded the day when she 
 should pass beyond his control. For ten years 
 he had devoted nearly every evening of his life 
 to her education, and had seen with delight 
 that his approbation was dear to her, and his 
 praise the highest reward of effort. Beside 
 the Hansons and the Norse families who 
 visited there, she knew but few, and readily 
 perceiving Quintus s superiority to those, she 
 came to look upon him as the ideal of human 
 perfection. She would not tolerate even an 
 54 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 55 
 
 implied criticism of liis appearance or char 
 acter, and Mrs. Hanson incurred her lasting 
 displeasure by remarking that he was greatly 
 to blaine for keeping her so close, and giving 
 her so little pleasure. This very thought, how 
 ever, had occurred to Bodill, too, one morning 
 as he was crossing the ferry, and he marvelled 
 at his own stupidity in not having thought of 
 it before. He resolved on the spot to procure 
 Tita a fitting toilet for the theatre, and to take 
 her as often as he could spare an evening to 
 accompany her. Perhaps she might also like 
 to drive in the Park ; and if so, there was no 
 reason why she should not, when he was not 
 required at the office. Beally, he had been 
 culpably thoughtless. 
 
 It was about a week after this resolution 
 was taken, that Tita, leaning on Quintus s arm, 
 entered Booth s Theatre, where Kignold was 
 at that time playing " Henry V." Her pro 
 tector, who was as ignorant as a babe as to the 
 effect of millinery upon the female character, 
 was in a state of abject admiration and aston 
 ishment. He had always known that Tita was 
 
56 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 beautiful, but he had never known that she 
 was so beautiful. Like the peasant in the 
 fairy tale, he had unwittingly been the foster- 
 father of a princess. Tita discovered that 
 night (what she had never been aware of be 
 fore) that she possessed a rare talent the tal 
 ent for luxury. Poor Quintus, who was trem 
 bling lest he should step on something, or tear 
 something, or in any way damage the elaborate 
 effect, blushed with suppressed agitation, and 
 vaguely wondered that the whole audience did 
 not rise to its feet to contemplate Tita s mag 
 nificence. But, as far as he could observe, there 
 was no one who was abnormally excited. He 
 was, however, too absorbed in Tita to notice 
 immediately two ladies in a box, not far away, 
 both of whom had their opera-glasses levelled 
 toward where he was sitting. Presently he 
 became aware that some one was bowing to 
 him, and while returning the salutation, he 
 discovered that it was Miss Dimpleton and her 
 mother. Then the thought flashed through 
 his brain that, although he had been intimately 
 acquainted with Miss Dimpleton for more than 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 57 
 
 a year, he had never mentioned Tita s name to 
 her. He had at first been restrained by a fear 
 that she would look upon his adoption of this 
 homeless waif as a quixotic and ridiculous act, 
 and he knew that he had no tenderer spot in 
 his heart, or one capable of being more cruelly 
 wounded. Miss Dimple ton had in the first 
 period of their acquaintance appeared to him 
 as the personification of pure reason, and the 
 apprehension seemed by no means ill-grounded 
 that she might feel a pitying superiority to a 
 man who was capable, on the spur of the mo 
 ment, of performing an irrationally generous 
 deed. When he had once established himself 
 in her friendship, he discovered that he had 
 done her injustice ; but the very fact that he 
 had delayed the revelation so long was sure to 
 throw a false light upon it, and even arouse 
 suspicion. With every month that passed, the 
 original mistake became more difficult to 
 remedy, and Bodill became conscious of a 
 positive guilt whenever (as had often happened 
 before the incident with the imprisoned kiss) 
 his little girl came running toward him, greet- 
 
58 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 ing him with outstretched arms and over 
 whelming him with her vehement caresses. 
 
 He moved a little uneasily in his seat as, 
 even after the curtain had risen, he became 
 conscious of Miss Dimpleton s continued 
 scrutiny. Tita apparently aroused her curi 
 osity in an unusual degree. He began to im 
 agine all the thoughts that must be passing 
 through her head, her puzzled defence of his 
 integrity and her inability to harmonize his 
 various statements about his having no female 
 acquaintances, except herself, outside of his 
 home, with the presence of this striking young 
 lady at his side. The gorgeous pageants on 
 the stage followed in quick succession, but his 
 imagination went on an independent journey 
 of exploration and conjecture ; and when the 
 curtain rolled down over the last scene, he 
 could hardly remember a single phrase or in 
 cident. Tita, on the other hand, had been 
 immensely entertained. She acted the woo 
 ing scene in Quintus s study after they got 
 home, and talked English with a French ac 
 cent, a la Princess Catherine, for a week after. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 59 
 
 Before they retired she curled up in her chair 
 and meditated, while Quintus smoked his ci 
 gar. All of a sudden she looked up and sur 
 prised him with this question, uttered in a 
 tone of vexed impatience : 
 
 "Why do people marry, Quint?" 
 
 " Well, my dear," he answered, slowly, puff 
 ing a ring of smoke toward the ceiling, " I 
 suppose it is because they would be lonely if 
 they lived apart." 
 
 " But you and I are not lonely, and yet we 
 are not married." 
 
 " That is because you and I are so fond of 
 each other that we don t want to run away 
 from each other, even if we are not married," 
 he answered, laughing. 
 
 " Then marriage," she went on, with an air 
 of grappling earnestly with the question, " is 
 invented to keep people together who would 
 like to run away from each other." 
 
 " Not exactly that, darling," he said, becom 
 ing suddenly serious, " although that is unde 
 niably an office which marriage is frequently 
 made to perform." 
 
60 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 " Well, what is it meant for, then, Quint ? " 
 
 " It is intended to bind people more closely 
 together who love each other dearly." 
 
 " Then why don t you and I marry, Quint ? 
 "We love each other dearly." 
 
 She had come close up to him, and put her 
 arms coaxingly about his neck, as if she were 
 begging him for a new dress or bonnet. 
 
 "That is a thing which you don t under 
 stand yet, my sweet child," he replied, a lit 
 tle tremulously (for somehow the question, 
 uttered so innocently, touched him deeply) ; 
 " but you will know some day, when you are 
 older." 
 
 " Yes, I do know, too," she cried, with sud 
 den vehemence. " It is because you love Miss 
 Dimpleton more than you do me." 
 
 And, bursting into tears, she rushed out of 
 the room. 
 
 The scales had at last fallen from Quintus s 
 eyes. He now wondered that he had been so 
 persistently blind. Tita was jealous of Miss 
 Dimpleton, not because she knew what love 
 was, but from a childish, unreasoning impulse, 
 
QUEEN TTTAXLA. 
 
 as any pet animal is jealous if another 
 threatens to usurp its place. The situation 
 was getting more complicated than, in his 
 Norse simplicity, Quintus had ever antici 
 pated. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE next day it was a gray and frosty 
 morning in February a very unusual thing 
 happened. Tita did not make her appearance 
 at breakfast, and replied, to Quintus s anxious 
 inquiries at her door, that she had a headache. 
 "When he returned in the evening, she had ap 
 parently recovered from her indisposition ; but 
 some strange, new spirit had taken possession 
 of her, and he had to rub his eyes to be sure 
 that he was not mistaken as to her identity. 
 She received him, not with her old impulsive 
 caresses, but with a stately grace, which was in 
 keeping with yesterday s train, but not with 
 to-day s shorter skirts. She presided at table 
 with a dignity which was superb, and to his 
 wondering gazes she responded with politely 
 questioning smiles, as if she did not quite 
 comprehend the reason for his astonishment. 
 Quintus was sincerely puzzled, and would have 
 felt justified in being angry, if Tita had not 
 
 62 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 63 
 
 looked so ravishing just then in her offended 
 dignity, with her beautiful, rebellious curls 
 making a golden frame about her sweet, dim 
 pled face. Dignity in a countenance of this 
 type, though to the possessor it is undoubtedly 
 very impressive, has rarely been known to 
 alarm outsiders. Tita, however, was ignorant 
 of this fact of natural history, and therefore 
 persisted until bedtime in her majestic de 
 meanor, while Quintus smoked in brooding 
 discontent. For there were other things than 
 Tita s caprices which troubled him. The next 
 day would be Thursday, and he would be 
 obliged to meet Miss Dimpleton, and probably 
 to offer her an explanation. Then the fool 
 ishly guarded secret would at last be revealed, 
 and very likely, when Tita was brought out, 
 Miss Dimpleton would prove herself a kind 
 and valuable friend to her. And with this 
 consoling reflection he hung his meerschaum 
 (a hollow and frightfully inflated Turk whom 
 Tita had named the Eastern Question) in its 
 proper corner on the wall, and, finding made 
 moiselle s chair empty, retired to bed. But 
 
64 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 he scarcely divined what the morrow had in 
 store for him. And yet the sun had a singu 
 larly ominous look as it shone, small and re 
 mote, through the river fog on the following 
 morning. On reaching the office, Quintus met 
 Hanson coming out from his chief s private 
 room. It was rather unusual for Mr. Dimple- 
 ton to arrive so early, and still more unusual 
 for him to have private interviews with Han 
 son. However, life was at best a humdrum 
 affair, and would be still more so if a man were 
 not at liberty to do things which his neighbors 
 might regard as eccentric. With this and 
 similar sophistries, Quintus strove to soothe 
 his troubled spirits, while with absent-minded 
 haste he tore open the envelopes of his busi 
 ness correspondence, and with sudden and un 
 accountable pauses, as if he had lost the 
 thread of his thought, gave directions to the 
 clerks who came to receive his orders. A few 
 moments after Hanson s departure, Mr. Dim- 
 pleton, without taking the slightest notice of 
 Bodill as he passed, called for his carriage and 
 drove away, and, about two hours later, a 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 65 
 
 messenger boy handed him a note from Miss 
 Jessie, in which she announced, in the most 
 coldly formal manner, that she would be 
 obliged henceforth to discontinue her Homeric 
 studies, and that she would accordingly make 
 no further demand upon his valuable time. 
 About three o clock in the afternoon, the head 
 of the firm returned and sent a clerk to Quin- 
 tus s desk, requesting that Mr. Bodill would 
 favor him with a moment s interview. The 
 door of the private office was carefully locked 
 when he had entered, and Mr. Dimpleton, 
 with an icy solemnity which seemed to make a 
 perceptible change in the temperature of the 
 room, motioned him to a chair and seated 
 himself on the lounge opposite. 
 
 " I offered you a partnership in this firm, 
 Mr. Bodill," he began, abruptly, " under the 
 impression that you were a man of excellent 
 habits and character a Christian man and 
 a man of honor. This firm, sir, has always 
 prided itself on the blameless Christian char 
 acter of its members. Now, I am well aware 
 that, from the Old- World point of view, the 
 
66 QUEEN TITAOTA. 
 
 offence of which you have been guilty is a 
 venial one, and would there probably not in 
 terfere seriously with your social standing " 
 
 "And perhaps, sir/ interrupted Quintus, 
 springing to his feet, while his face burned 
 with indignation, " you will have the kindness 
 to inform me of what offence I have been 
 guilty ? " 
 
 " I had a higher respect for you than that, 
 Mr. Bodill," retorted Mr. Dimpleton, in a 
 slightly impatient tone, as if to say that it was 
 of no use to contest his facts, which were be 
 yond dispute. " Then you plead ignorance of 
 your guilt, do you ? Well, sir, to a gentleman 
 of your principles, very likely, it does not as 
 sume the character of guilt But since you in 
 sist upon it, I have no objection to informing 
 you that I refer to the fact that, although un 
 married, you have a daughter, as I am told, 
 nearly sixteen years old. And knowing well 
 how my family and I would look upon this 
 circumstance, you have carefully guarded your 
 tongue, and never in our presence made the 
 faintest allusion to her existence," 
 
QUEEN TITAttlA. 67 
 
 " And who told you, sir, that I have a daugh 
 ter ? " inquired Quintus, now no longer in an 
 ger, but with calm disdain. 
 
 " It is of no consequence who told me. 
 However, if it can gratify you to know, it was 
 a man who has every means of knowing your 
 life, both previous to your arrival in this 
 country and after. I need not say that I refer 
 to Mr. Hanson." 
 
 " And did Mr. Hanson tell you that Tita was 
 my daughter?" cried Quintus, opening his 
 eyes wide in astonishment. 
 
 " He said he had not the slightest doubt 
 that she was your daughter, and that you had 
 been compelled to leave home. Your father, 
 he said, is very irascible, but it is needless to 
 recount what you know so well. Moreover, 
 he added a great deal of corroborative evi 
 dence, which would make it useless for you to 
 deny." 
 
 " In that case, Mr. Dimpleton," responded 
 Quintus, with the utmost dignity, " I suppose 
 it would be agreeable to you assuredly it 
 would to me if our business connection were 
 
68 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 dissolved, the sooner the better. If you can 
 take the word of a former groom of my father s, 
 who, moreover, offers you nothing but conjec 
 tures and impressions, and refuse even to hear 
 my defence, then my respect for you suffers as 
 severely as yours, according to your statement, 
 has for me." 
 
 "I have anticipated this proposition," re 
 marked the publisher, coolly, " and here is my 
 check for the amount which is due to you as 
 your share in the profits of the business." 
 
 Bodill, without even glancing at the check, 
 put it in his pocket-book, and, bowing stiffly, 
 took his leave. For several hours he sauntered 
 aimlessly up one street and down another, rode, 
 from sheer weariness, on the street cars to 
 Central Park, and back again to the City Hall, 
 dined absent-mindedly at a restaurant, and 
 finally, before the accustomed hour for his 
 return home had arrived, crossed the ferry to 
 Jersey City. He feared to encounter Tita s 
 questioning eyes, and sincerely hoped that her 
 dignified mood of yesterday would prove some 
 thing more than a fleeting caprice, as in that 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 69 
 
 case he might succeed in fortifying his heart 
 against compromising confessions. If Tita 
 was stately, he might be distant, and they 
 might avoid affectionate collisions, which would 
 inevitably lead, not to the revelation of the 
 truth, for that would have been impossible, 
 but to much enforced and ingenious deception, 
 which, to a conscientious man like Quintus, 
 was scarcely less unpleasant. He had hardly 
 entered his study, however, before he divined 
 that the latter alternative would be presented 
 to him. Tita, who was yet playing the Queen 
 Titania (as Quintus had humorously designated 
 her majestic role), no sooner discovered the 
 look of weariness and trouble which shim 
 mered through the hypocritical cheerfulness 
 of his face than she forgot her studiously pre 
 pared part, and, rushing forward, became once 
 more the old vehement, childish, and adorable 
 Tita. 
 
 " Quint, Quint," she cried, "what have they 
 been doing to you ? And to-night is your 
 Homeric evening, too. And yet you come 
 home so early. Has Miss Dimpleton been bad 
 
70 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 to you, Quint? I never shall like her if she 
 has." 
 
 " No, child," he answered, taking the lovely 
 face between his hands and kissing it. " I am 
 only a little tired, and would like a long, peace 
 ful smoke." 
 
 "But you can t have it, Quint," persisted 
 Tita, giving her head a decisive little shake, and 
 looking, with her hair curling rebelliously over 
 her forehead, like a determined little Shetland 
 pony who is conscious that its perversity is 
 not altogether unbecoming. " Something has 
 gone wrong to-day, and you will have no peace 
 until I know what it is." 
 
 But Quintus would only give her fables for 
 facts, and she retired with the conviction that 
 he had proposed to Miss Dimpleton and had 
 been refused. But what a monster Miss Dim 
 pleton must be to refuse Quintus ! In her in 
 dignation at such iniquity, Tita even forgot 
 to congratulate herself upon the removal of a 
 dangerous rival. She felt too sad on Qumtus s 
 account to be glad on her own. 
 
YHL 
 
 i DURING the remainder of February and all 
 the month of March, Quintus kept up a hypo 
 critical show of activity, always starting at the 
 accustomed hour for the office, and spending 
 the day in cafes and reading-rooms, and in aim 
 less wanderings about the city. He once even 
 fell asleep on one of the benches in the Union 
 Square Park, and, on being awakened by a 
 policeman, had much difficulty in persuading 
 him that he was neither drunk nor a vagrant. 
 Often he was seen trudging on through the dis 
 mal, chilly rain which New York rarely escapes 
 during March, having apparently some serious 
 purpose in view ; but being utterly oblivious of 
 the state of his clothes and the direction his feet 
 were taking, he would sometimes find himself 
 in the most dangerous and disreputable dis 
 tricts of the city. He attracted, however, no 
 special attention. His tall hat looked shabby 
 and weather-beaten, his coat was dripping wet, 
 
 71 
 
72 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 and lie was shivering from head to foot the 
 normal condition of the inhabitants of these 
 neighborhoods. He would have much pre 
 ferred to remain at home, seated in his easy- 
 chair in his comfortable library; but in that 
 case Tita would have drawn her inference, and 
 an explanation would have been inevitable. 
 
 Tita, in the meanwhile, was not blind to the 
 striking change in Quintus s appearance and 
 temperament. She noticed with increased ap 
 prehension the daily deepening of the lines 
 about his mouth and eyes, the listless stoop 
 in his shoulders, and the look of extreme 
 weariness in his whole countenance. She dared 
 no longer coax and question him in her playful 
 manner, for she suspected that the cause of his 
 grief was too serious to be dismissed with a 
 playful retort. Moreover, he showed a dispo 
 sition to irritability, which, in so amiable a man 
 as he, was quite alarming; and Tita, with the 
 superior knowledge of her sixteen years, began 
 to prescribe for him, as for a moral invalid, 
 substituting cocoa for coffee at breakfast, and 
 fruit for pastries at dessert, and making various 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 73 
 
 other dietary changes, in which Quintus, with 
 out a suspicion of their cause, unmurmuringly 
 acquiesced. Tita, however, failed to observe 
 any beneficial effects from her remedies, and as 
 Quintus continued to grow thinner and more 
 hollow-cheeked she grew more and more 
 anxious, and finally resolved upon a daring en 
 terprise which she had long vaguely meditated. 
 That Quintus was in love, there could be no 
 reason to doubt. From the few novels she had 
 read, she had learned that the symptoms of 
 this ailment were very alarming and extraor 
 dinary. And further, as Quint knew no other 
 ladies than herself and Miss Dimpleton, and 
 whereas, if he were in love with herself, he 
 would undoubtedly have told her so, there was 
 no escape from the conclusion that he must be 
 in love with Miss Dimpleton. Moreover, his 
 melancholy had dated from the evening when 
 the Homeric readings had ceased. What more 
 probable, then, than that Miss Dimpleton had 
 refused him that very night? Of course, after 
 such an occurrence it would be embarrassing to 
 continue the acquaintance. Thus reasoned the 
 
74 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 sage little Tita. And although in an obscure 
 corner of her heart there had lurked a hope 
 that Quint would some day love her as dearly 
 as she loved him, she was resolved to be 
 heroic and to do all in her power to restore 
 his happiness. If Miss Dimpleton were aware 
 what a noble fellow Quint was, she surely 
 would not persist in her refusal to marry him. 
 But, of course, she could not know ; she did 
 not know him as well as Tita did. Therefore 
 Tita concluded that it was her duty to go to 
 Miss Dimpleton and enlighten her. She would, 
 of course, have to choose a morning when 
 Quint, as she supposed, would be at the office. 
 In this adventurous mood, Tita donned her 
 walking costume and tripped demurely down 
 toward the ferry-boat. She took a street-car 
 uptown, and arrived without any mishap at the 
 door of one of those great, featureless masses 
 of brown stone in which the fashionable New 
 Yorker loves to dwell. She rang the bell, and 
 was promptly admitted by the colored briga 
 dier in blue and yellow, who, as Tita presently 
 reflected, had been gotten up to match the fur- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 75 
 
 niture. She sent up her card, upon which she 
 had written, with much trepidation at her own 
 daring, "Miss Hulbert," and in a few minutes 
 Miss Dirnpleton descended, held out her hand 
 hesitatingly, and, with an interrogatory smile 
 on her lips, said : 
 
 " Excuse me, but I do not remember having 
 had the pleasure 
 
 "No, Miss Dimpleton," said Tita, as Miss 
 Dimpleto.1 showed no disposition to continue, 
 " you have never met me before : but but 
 please allow me to sit down and collect my 
 thoughts a little, Miss Dimpleton." 
 
 She felt an alarming inclination to burst into 
 tears ; she was puzzled and frightened at the 
 rashness of her undertaking. Miss Dimpleton 
 seemed very formidable, too, with her clear 
 gray eyes, and her smooth hair, and her rich 
 and stately attire. She stood looking at poor 
 Tita, as if she were deciphering her very soul. 
 
 " Yes, certainly, do sit down," she was say 
 ing, gazing with sudden intentness at Tita s 
 card, which she was yet holding in her hand. 
 " Your name, it appears, is Miss Hulbert. May 
 
76 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 I ask, were you not the lady whom I saw with 
 Mr. Bodill in the theatre about six or seven 
 weeks ago?" 
 
 " Yes, probably I was." 
 
 " Then pardon me if I ask you embarrassing 
 questions ; but it is of some importance to me 
 to know. Ought not your name to be Miss 
 Bodill?" 
 
 "You mean that I ought to marry Quint?" 
 exclaimed Tita, in hypocritical astonishment, 
 while the tears trembled through her w r ords. 
 " Oh, not at all, I assure you. Of course, I love 
 Quint very much, because he is so good and 
 kind and lovely oh, you don t know how good 
 Quint is, Miss Dimpleton." 
 
 Somehow there was something very touch 
 ing to her, just then, in Quint s goodness, and 
 the tears refused to be held in check any long 
 er, but coursed down her cheeks, while she yet 
 bravely gazed into her rival s eye. 
 
 " I have no doubt Mr. Bodill is very good to 
 you" replied Miss Dimpleton, a little stiffly, 
 although she had to admit to herself that the 
 impulsive and childlike manner of this young 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 77 
 
 girl was very winning. Evidently Mr. Bodill 
 had kept her in ignorance of his true relation 
 to her, and under such circumstances it would 
 hardly be kind to burden her with a knowledge 
 which would necessarily give her pain. " But," 
 she added, "pardon my frankness but how 
 does Mr. Bodill s goodness concern me ? " 
 
 "It concerns you very much indeed, Miss 
 Dimpleton, if you only knew it," said Tita, re 
 solved, however embarrassing it might be, to 
 speak plainly. "Quint has been very ill of 
 late, ever since the evening when you gave up 
 your Homeric studies. I know that something 
 must then have happened to him, although he 
 has never told me what it was. Yet I know 
 that it is you who must have done something 
 to him that has wounded him very deeply. 
 And, Miss Dimpleton, it was this I came to 
 tell you, that if there ever was a man in this 
 world who is thoroughly noble, from the crown 
 of his head to the sole of his foot, that man is 
 Quintus Bodill. It is a great pity that he 
 should care so much for your company that it 
 should make him ill and wretched not to see 
 
78 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 you. For, though you are very beautiful, you 
 are not as beautiful as Quint ; nor are you so 
 good as he is, since you like to wound and 
 grieve those who are fond of you." 
 
 Miss Dimpleton, instead of smiling at this in 
 trepid arraignment, delivered in a tear-choked 
 voice, grew suddenly very serious, and sat gaz 
 ing with a look of earnest scrutiny into Tita s 
 face. 
 
 " Listen to me, Miss Hulbert," she said, half 
 unconsciously seizing Tita s hand. " You think 
 I am cold and cruel, and that Mr. Bodill is a 
 saint. Supposing it was I who was cruelly 
 wounded, and that it was Mr. Bodill who had 
 inflicted the wound. Unfortunately I cannot 
 make you understand what I mean. But when 
 a man creates an ideal of purity and nobleness 
 in a woman s mind, and then carefully conceals 
 the fact that he is himself far from worship 
 ping at the altar which he erects for her ; then 
 then" Miss Dimpleton groped for a mo 
 ment for the proper phrase " there is no for 
 giveness for that man and in all likelihood he 
 would not even care to be forgiven. Suppose, 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 79 
 
 too, that a woman had held aloof from soci 
 ety, and refused to squander her strength and 
 blunt her sensibilities in fashionable dissipa 
 tions ; suppose she had hungered for a life of 
 nobler aims and loftier interests, and fancied 
 that this man held the key to the Eden she 
 had dreamed of, and imagine then her indigna 
 tion when she discovered that he, too, had 
 soiled his hands in the moral filth in which the 
 baser crowd of humanity grovel. Can you, 
 with your sixteen years, imagine the bitterness 
 which such an experience leaves behind it, and 
 the dreariness and hopelessness which must 
 follow?" 
 
 Tita, who, without precisely understanding 
 the nature of Miss Dimpleton s grievance, 
 vaguely felt that Quintus s honor was being 
 assailed, bristled all over with eagerness to 
 rush to his defence. Her interlocutor, how 
 ever, although she observed her impatience, 
 was resolved to finish her indictment not be 
 cause she would condescend to demand sym 
 pathy, but merely to give vent to the righteous 
 wrath and scorn which had accumulated with- 
 
80 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 in her. Now, at last, came Tita s chance to 
 retort. 
 
 "Well, madam," she broke forth, forgetting 
 entirely her benevolent purposes," if you mean 
 to insinuate that Quintus Bodill is the kind of 
 man you have just been describing, I under 
 stand what you mean, and you needn t look 
 pityingly at me, then I can only say that 
 that you don t know him, and that you are un 
 worthy of the honor of knowing him." 
 
 And, with a disdainful bow, Tita swept out 
 of the room, whereupon the formidable blue- 
 and-yellow negro opened the door. As she 
 descended the steps, she met an elderly gen 
 tleman, who had just emerged from his coupe, 
 and was running up the steps with an eager 
 ness quite out of keeping with his years. She 
 could not look him in the face for her tears ; 
 but as she heard his latch-key in the doer, 
 Tita sagely concluded that it must be Mr. 
 Dimpleton. 
 
IX. 
 
 " TELL Miss Jessie I want to see her, as 
 soon as possible," said Mr. Dimple ton to the 
 servant. 
 
 " Miss Dimpleton is in the pa lo , sah," was 
 the reply. 
 
 The publisher, with a look of suppressed 
 excitement, entered the room, and, without 
 any preliminary, handed his daughter an 
 opened letter. Miss Jessie, who was too ab 
 sorbed with her own reflections to notice her 
 father s manner, received the letter rather list 
 lessly, and, supposing it to be an invitation, 
 put it into her pocket. 
 
 " Why, my dear, I wish you to read it at 
 once," said he ; " it is a matter of great im 
 portance." 
 
 She sank into an easy-chair, unfolded the 
 paper, and had hardly read ten words, when 
 she started up again, and stared hard at her 
 father. 
 
 6 81 
 
82 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 " Where, where did this " she cried. 
 
 " Bead it, read it," he demanded, " and then 
 tell me what we ought to do. Of course we 
 owe him reparation." 
 
 The letter read as follows : 
 
 "Messrs. J. C. DIMPLETON & Co. 
 
 "GENTLEMEN: We have been informed that you have in 
 your employ a gentleman, about thirty-two years of age, 
 named Quintus Bodill. A young man of that name crossed in 
 one of our steamers about twelve years ago, and made himself 
 the voluntary guardian of a little girl, then four years old, 
 whose mother had died during the voyage. We made care 
 ful inquiries at the time, in the hope of discovering some 
 friend or relative of the deceased, but all our efforts were in 
 vain. As in all probability Mr. Bodill would have informed 
 us of the child s death, and we have received no intelligence 
 to that effect, we conclude that she must be alive, and yet 
 under Mr. Bodill s protection. 
 
 "The occasion for our troubling you with this affair is 
 the fact that a sum of $455 was collected among the passen 
 gers for the benefit of the orphaned girl, which sum was de 
 posited with us, and invested in United States six per cent, 
 bonds. Capital and interest are at Mr. Bodill s disposal 
 whenever he will present himself, with proper identification, 
 at our office. A messenger, whom we sent to your place of 
 business to inquire for him, failed to find him, and we 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 83 
 
 therefore beg of you to have the kindness to communicate to 
 him the contents of this letter. We have the honor to re 
 main, gentlemen, 
 
 "Very respectfully yours, 
 
 "BALLARD, RUSH & Co., 
 
 "Agents for Transatlantic Steamship Co." 
 
 "If he had only not been so deucedly 
 proud," said Mr. Dimpleton, in a dispirited 
 sort of fashion " if he had only deigned to 
 offer me an explanation, all .this trouble might 
 have been avoided." 
 
 "How could he, father?" retorted Miss 
 Jessie, passionately, letting the letter drop into 
 her lap. "After what you said to him, there 
 was but one thing for a man of honor to do, 
 and that was exactly what he did." 
 
 " And who was it that prompted me to act 
 so rashly as I did on such very slight prem 
 ises ? " asked he, with a remote approach to 
 indignation. 
 
 " It was I, father, and I ought to suffer for 
 it. But oh, if I had only known five minutes 
 ago what I know now, I might, at all events, 
 have avoided adding insult to injury ! The 
 
84 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 young lady you met on the steps was the or 
 phan referred to in this letter, and she came, 
 evidently without his knowledge, to upbraid 
 me, as I deserve to be upbraided, for my hasty 
 condemnation, and for my whole ignoble con 
 duct toward him." 
 
 Miss Jessie was in the contrite mood when 
 there was a satisfaction in feeling the cut of 
 the lash, and she would have bowed her head 
 humbly under the application of the severest 
 adjectives. And yet, through all this luxurious 
 humility, there thrilled a sense of triumph at 
 the thought that she had, after all, not bestow 
 ed her admiration, and perhaps something even 
 more precious, upon one who was unworthy. 
 She need no longer blush at her own want of 
 insight and discrimination, and she need no 
 longer writhe under the degradation of having 
 opened the inner chambers of her soul to pro 
 fane eyes. It will be seen that she was occu 
 pied chiefly with herself. She felt vaguely 
 sorry for the suffering she had caused him, but 
 her uppermost feeling was joy at being re 
 habilitated in her own sight. There was some 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 85 
 
 satisfaction, however, in knowing that Bodill 
 had taken her displeasure to heart, although, 
 of course, she could not ascertain how much of 
 his wretchedness was due to the loss of his 
 position. 
 
 " Well, my dear," said her father, who was 
 ever ready to do his daughter s bidding, " what 
 do you propose to do now ? " 
 
 " Order the carriage for me at four, please," 
 she answered, after a moment s hesitation, 
 " and we will both make Mr. Bodill a call and 
 offer him our apologies. I believe he lives 
 somewhere on the Jersey side?" 
 
 "Yes, we have his address at the office." 
 
X. 
 
 TITA glanced with some uneasiness toward 
 the door, and hastily secreted about a square 
 foot of embroidery in a drawer, the key of 
 which she put, with a triumphant little nod, 
 into her pocket. She was making Quintus an 
 elaborate Turkish smoking-cap, to go with his 
 dressing-gown and slippers, so that, while in 
 dulging in the oriental luxury of smoking, he 
 might be in character, as it were entirely a 
 la Turque. But it was, of course, of the utmost 
 importance that Quint should have no suspi 
 cion of her deep design until April 5th, when 
 he would be thirty-two years old. On his 
 birthday she was, moreover, in the habit of 
 making him presents of all the things which 
 she conceived that he was in need of ; and the 
 bills were, of course, duly presented, one by 
 one, with many days interval, at times when 
 he was incapable of being anything but ami 
 able. 
 
 86 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 87 
 
 Hearing heavy footsteps, Tita imagined that 
 it was Quint, who was returning from the office 
 a little earlier than usual. Presently there 
 was a knock at the door, accompanied by an 
 ominous rustle of silk. Tita, with her heart 
 in her throat, seized hold of the knob, and, 
 without a thought of her toilet, turned it. It 
 had never yet happened that any one had call 
 ed upon her, and she naturally supposed that 
 some one was making a mistake. When she 
 beheld the stately forms of Miss Dimpleton 
 and her father, she cast an anxious glance 
 about the room (which, very likely, to feminine 
 eyes, presented a disorderly appearance), then 
 made a distant and dignified bow, and request 
 ed the visitors to be seated. 
 
 " The weather has been extremely capricious 
 of late," remarked Mr. Dimpleton, gazing with 
 a profound interest at the cornice of one of the 
 tall book-cases which covered two walls of the 
 room. 
 
 " Yes, I believe it has," said Tita, blushing 
 to the edge of her hair, and feeling strangely 
 agitated. She could not get rid of the impres- 
 
88 QUEEN TTTANIA. 
 
 sion that Mr. and Miss Dimpleton had come 
 here on some errand of revenge, possibly to 
 punish her for her insolence during the morn 
 ing. In the next moment, however, she felt 
 ashamed of these suspicions, and with an ener 
 getic effort set herself to the task of entertain 
 ing her guests. But unhappily she feared that 
 she knew but little of social etiquette, and she 
 had never felt so completely at sea with any 
 one as with these two grave and apparently 
 critical strangers. 
 
 " Mr. Bodill seems to be a good deal of a 
 scholar," began Mr. Dimpleton again, just as 
 Tita was meditating her first tentative remark. 
 
 "Yes, sir," she hastened to answer; "he 
 takes great pleasure in his books, and he has 
 some very rare ones, too. I am so sorry that 
 he has not yet returned from the office, but he 
 rarely returns until half-past five or six." 
 
 "The office?" repeated Mr. Dimpleton, in an 
 interrogatory tone. " Is Mr. Bodill in business 
 
 O " 
 
 again : 
 
 " He has never been out of business, as far 
 as I know," retorted Tita; then, with a sudden 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 89 
 
 clearance of vision, and anxiety in her voice, 
 she added : " I supposed he was in business 
 with you, sir. At all events, I never heard that 
 he had separated from you." 
 
 "We we are no longer together," replied 
 Mr. Dimpleton, in a good deal of confusion. 
 " We separated about six weeks ago." 
 
 " Six weeks ago ! " exclaimed Tita ; " and he 
 has been going to the office every morning, 
 and has returned every night at the usual 
 hour." 
 
 "He has not been with me, I can assure 
 you," asserted the publisher, severely. He was 
 not finely enough organized to divine the mo 
 tive for such a prolonged deception, and was 
 inclined to judge Bodill by his own standard. 
 
 " Mr. Bodill evidently wished to spare you 
 the pain of knowing that he was out of em 
 ployment," said his daughter, whom Tita s 
 mournful face had moved to compassion. Tita 
 was having the most horrible compunctions in 
 regard to a blue parasol with a lizard carved 
 on its ivory handle ; she had bought it with 
 Quint s permission, but she well remembered 
 
90 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 the expression of his face when she told him 
 the price. 
 
 Miss Dimpleton, too, by the way, had been 
 indulging a remorseful reverie, and had, like 
 Tita, arrived at the most uncomplimentary 
 conclusions regarding herself. This plainly 
 furnished room, with the long, serious rows of 
 books along the walls, and the great, well-worn 
 dictionaries on the revolving shelves at the 
 writing-desk, was an eloquent commentary on 
 the life of the man whom she had misjudged. 
 She felt here the spirit of the man, and she felt 
 that it was a noble spirit. Her own splendid 
 upholstery, upon which she had spent so much 
 time and study, was, for the moment, almost 
 repugnant to her, and she would willingly (on 
 a certain condition) have exchanged her luxury 
 and ease for the moderate prosperity and 
 scholarly interests to which these books and 
 engravings bore witness. Mr. Bodill s tender 
 regard for the feelings of his ward (not to 
 speak of Tita s extravagant eulogies) also gave 
 her a new clue to his character, and as the 
 picture grew toward completeness at every 
 
QUEEN TTTANA. 91 
 
 fresh touch which her memory furnished, her 
 own conduct appeared to grow blacker in pro 
 portion as his grew more noble. 
 
 While the two ladies were thus tormenting 
 themselves, and while Mr. Dimpleton was ex 
 amining Webster s Unabridged, which was 
 lying open on the writing-desk, with an air of 
 curious interest, as if it were the latest literary 
 novelty, footsteps were heard in the hall, and 
 Bodill entered. He looked worn and weary ; 
 the lines of his face indicated suffering ; and 
 the loving eyes of Tita read at once in these 
 lines the painful history of his generous de 
 ception. The twilight, however, had imper 
 ceptibly been creeping into the room, so that 
 Miss Dimpleton, who was less skilled in this 
 kind of psychological divination, saw nothing 
 but a tall, handsome man, who seemed to be 
 very tired. 
 
 " Mr. Bodill," she said, rising and advancing 
 to meet him, " we have come 
 
 " Miss Dimpleton ! " he exclaimed, starting 
 back in surprise. 
 
 " Yes, it is I, Mr. Bodill," she answered, in 
 
92 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 her clear, calm voice. " My father and I have 
 come to beg your forgiveness for a grievous 
 wrong we have done you." 
 
 "Yes. The fact is, Mr. Bodill," interposed 
 Mr. Dimpleton, in a hurried and embarrassed 
 way, " the fact is, it was a sad mistake a 
 very sad mistake, sir." 
 
 " It was more than that," insisted the daugh 
 ter ; " it was a cruel injustice and a grievous 
 wrong." 
 
 Quintus, instead of answering, glanced with 
 anxious tenderness toward Tita, who stood 
 with mouth, eyes, and ears intent upon dis 
 coveries. 
 
 " Couldn t you please go down, Pussy dear, 
 and tell Mrs. Hanson to postpone our supper 
 until half-past ? " he said, with visible uneasi 
 ness. " Tell her we have visitors." 
 
 When Tita, with a look of intelligent sym 
 pathy, and yet with evident reluctance, had left 
 the room, he said : 
 
 "Now, Miss Dimpleton, I am at your and 
 your father s disposal. Do, pray, be seated. 
 The subject to which you refer is to me a very 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 93 
 
 painful one, and, as it appears to me, it is 
 of no use to tear open a healing wound." 
 
 " We have very weighty reasons for doing 
 what we do," said Miss Dimpleton. "We owe 
 it to ourselves as well as to you. I need hardly 
 say that my father has come to offer you the 
 only reparation which you can accept and he 
 offer with justice to himself and to you. He 
 begs you, as a favor, to resume your former 
 relations with the firm." 
 
 " Yes, Mr. Bodill, we are anxious to have 
 you resume your former relations with us," 
 echoed Mr. Dimpleton, whose conversation in 
 his daughter s presence was but a slightly 
 modified version of her remarks. " We can 
 do nothing less, in justice to ourselves and to 
 you. I hope, sir, that that will be satisfactory 
 to you." 
 
 " It is not a favor we offer," explained the 
 young lady, with much earnestness, as Quintus 
 sat leaning his head on his hand in meditative 
 silence ; " it is a favor we beg you to confer." 
 
 "It is very kind of you to put it in that 
 way," answered Bodill, without looking up. 
 
94 QUEEN TTTANIA. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I cannot quite dismiss the 
 thought that, if Mr. Dimpleton had valued me 
 highly as a member of the firm, he would not 
 have accepted my resignation so promptly, and 
 listened so readily to rumors affecting my 
 character." 
 
 " You force me to be explicit," replied she, 
 with a little touch of excitement. " I shall 
 be obliged to tell you, then, that it was not my 
 father, but it was I, who accepted your resigna 
 tion that it was I who, if you choose, ex 
 pelled you from the firm. My father had, and 
 has, the highest appreciation of your ability, 
 and has sincerely regretted your loss, and is 
 now only anxious to have you accept our 
 apologies." 
 
 It evidently did not occur to her that she 
 was humiliating her father by this frank 
 avowal, nor did it appear to embarrass Mr. 
 Dimpleton in the least to have his daughter 
 thus openly declare his dependence upon her. 
 That she should rule and he obey, was part of 
 the inscrutable order of things, which could 
 not be remedied without a domestic revolution. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 95 
 
 And as his yoke had been very gradually as 
 sumed, and had never been very hard to bear, 
 the revolutionary spirit had long ago died out 
 of him. On Quintus, however, Miss Dimple- 
 ton s frankness made an unpleasant impres 
 sion; and although he could not conquer his 
 admiration of her beauty and her clear in 
 tellect, he began from this moment to discern 
 the alloy of baser metal in her character. And 
 it is marvellous how quickly the first question 
 ing of a friend s motive, the first hint of cen 
 sure, is followed by a host of critical sugges 
 tions, which in a short time, entirely transform 
 our friend s character. Thus, in Bodill s case, 
 the illusion was broken, and Miss Dimpleton 
 swiftly descended from the ideal heavens 
 whither she had flown with the strong wing- 
 beats of Homer s verse, and became an ordi 
 nary mortal though, as such, a very beautiful 
 and interesting one. 
 
 While thoughts like these had been, more 
 or less consciously, occupying Bodill s brain, 
 Miss Dimpleton had risen, and her face had 
 assumed that vaguely abstracted air which, in a 
 
96 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 lady visitor, indicates that she is on the watch 
 for a favorable opportunity to take her leave. 
 Her sire, to whom Boclill s silence was perhaps 
 a little vexatious, was once more absorbed in 
 Webster. He could not comprehend why a 
 young fellow should not jump at the chance of 
 becoming once more a partner in a business so 
 remunerative and so securely founded as his. 
 The daughter, too, who had anticipated no 
 difficulties in the path of reconciliation, was 
 beginning to feel a little impatient with his 
 scruples ; but, being intent upon her purpose, 
 determined to make one more attempt. 
 
 "I had one other errand in coming here," 
 she said, meeting Quintus s eye with her can 
 did gaze. " I have taken a great fancy to your 
 ward, Miss Hulbert, and I beg you to lend her 
 to me for one year. I wish to bring her out in 
 society, and to complete her social education, 
 as far as you and she will allow me. I promise 
 you I shall not spoil her, and, if you wish it, I 
 will return her to you at the end of the year, 
 as pure and sweet and beautiful as she is now. 
 But, as you are undoubtedly aware, a man is 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 97 
 
 not the best educator for a young girl of her 
 age; she needs some attentions that only a 
 woman can bestow. Now, what do you say? 
 I know the precious value of what I ask, and I 
 shall treasure it as a faithful steward." 
 
 The praise of Tita, and the delicate retrac 
 tion of all charges against him indicated by 
 this request, touched the Norseman deeply. 
 And yet, though he had long plotted a brilliant 
 social career for Tita, he felt as if his heart 
 was being wrung at the thought of losing 
 her. 
 
 "I thank you I thank you sincerely/ 1 he 
 stammered, quite overcome with emotion ; "but 
 do not press me to-night. I do not refuse your 
 offer, but I need time for reflection. To-mor 
 row, if you will permit me, I will call upon 
 you, and reply to both your kind proposi 
 tions." 
 
 " And remember, please," said Miss Dimple- 
 ton, as she shook his hand at the head of the 
 stairs, " that my admiration of your ward is no 
 passing fancy. You know this is the third 
 time I have seen her." 
 7 
 
98 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 " The third time?" 
 
 "Yes. The first time was at Booth s Theatre. 
 The second time was this morning, when she 
 made me a call, which you see I have been 
 very prompt in returning." 
 
XL 
 
 WHAT to do without Tita that was a serious 
 problem. And yet thus reasoned the wise 
 and conscientious Quint what to do with Tita 
 might in time become a still more serious one. 
 She was growing up into womanhood, and all 
 her affections had centred on him, only be 
 cause they had had no one else upon whom they 
 could centre. Was it fair, then, and generous 
 to keep her thus perpetually in ignorance of 
 the world ? No ; he would give her full liberty 
 of choice (he had an idea that Tita merely 
 needed to look at a man to have him fall a vic 
 tim at her feet), he would allow her to enjoy 
 the triumphs to which her mind and her 
 beauty entitled her ; and if, then, after a moder 
 ate experience of the world, she returned, with 
 an unwavering heart, to him so much the 
 better ; he would not possess himself of the 
 of a woman surreptitiously, nor would 
 
 99 
 
100 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 he bestow even wealth and happiness upon 
 her except by her own free and enlightened 
 choice. 
 
 Being, in the meanwhile, convinced of the 
 sincerity of the Dimpletons, and their mortifi 
 cation at the injustice they had done him, he 
 also determined to accept their offer to reenter 
 the firm. He would thus be able to give her 
 the social advantages, such as they might be, 
 of a winter in New York. It was evident 
 Quint had a weak spot in his otherwise sound 
 composition. He desired for Tita distinctions 
 of whose worthlessness he was himself fully 
 convinced. He reasoned that it would be 
 cruel to have his prejudices in any way inter 
 fere with her pleasures. 
 
 It was a considerable surprise to him when he 
 found that Tita was not a party to his specula 
 tions that, in fact, she was violently opposed 
 to all his ambitious projects. She had grown 
 up among his book-cases, and she was deter 
 mined to remain there. If he was going to 
 marry Miss Dimpleton and become Mr. Dini- 
 pleton (Tita thought this a dextergus thrust), 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 101 
 
 why, then, of course she would have to give 
 her consent and, in the end, condone the of 
 fence by continuing to reside under their roof; 
 but her blessing she would withhold, unless it 
 proved entirely indispensable to their happi 
 ness. "When Tita was in her bantering mood, 
 Quintus always sat beaming with paternal ad 
 miration, and thus frequently forgot his argu 
 ment. And the little rogue, who was well ac 
 quainted with her protector s weaknesses, had 
 no scruples in employing this method of es 
 cape from disagreeable topics. The evil day, 
 however, was merely postponed. Quintus was 
 really this time in earnest, and Tita divined 
 from his persistence in argument that his mind 
 was made up, and that her dilatory tactics 
 were of no avail. She then yielded a graceful 
 acquiescence, and, without further remon 
 strance, allowed herself to be transferred to 
 the residence on Madison Avenue. It was on 
 the day of separation, when they were seated 
 together in the carriage, that he came near 
 asking her the object of her former visit to 
 Miss Dimpleton, to which he had never be- 
 
102 QUEEN TITAOTA. 
 
 fore alluded ; but, being a great master in the 
 mental arithmetic of affection, he was subject 
 to sudden revelations, and, in this instance, 
 at least, he knew that he had no need of 
 asking. 
 
XII. 
 
 Two months after Tita s arrival the Dim- 
 pletons broke up for the summer and went to 
 Newport, where they owned a villa. Tita, of 
 course, was removed with the rest of the bag 
 gage ; and Miss Dimpleton, who counted much 
 on the pleasure of bringing out a new and 
 striking - looking young lady, had naturally 
 taken pains to provide her with a sufficient 
 number of effective costumes. All the dresses 
 which had been manufactured by Mrs. Hanson, 
 with the aid of the "Bazar," and even those 
 which were the work of "fashionable dress 
 makers " who dealt in "Modes de Paris" were 
 ruthlessly cashiered ; in their places marvel 
 lous compositions of laces and flowers and sat 
 ins were devised by persons who had seriously 
 studied the art of hiding defects and empha 
 sizing beauties, and harmoniously arranging 
 all the multifarious details of a young lady s 
 appearance. It was singular enough that the 
 
 103 
 
104 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 Homeric Miss Dimpleton, who never aimed at 
 elaborate effects in her own toilet, should have 
 expended so much time and thought on triv 
 ialities in her guest s behalf. She had, how 
 ever, a dimly defined purpose, which, though 
 unacknowledged at first, gradually began to be 
 countenanced, and at last governed all her 
 actions. It had risen for the first time, con 
 sciously, in her mind when she made Bodill 
 the proposal to attend to Tita s social educa 
 tion ; but she had been ashamed of it, and had 
 persuaded herself that she had much more 
 laudable motives in assuming this responsible 
 charge. Crudely stated, she recognized in 
 Tita a rival, and she wished to make her harm 
 less. And the simplest way to accomplish 
 this would be to marry her to another man. 
 She did not doubt that such an arrangement 
 would conduce to Tita s happiness as well as 
 to her own ; at any rate, Tita must take her 
 chances in the matrimonial lottery as other 
 women did, and not foolishly aspire to an ex 
 ceptional and ideal happiness, which was only 
 reserved for very exceptional persons like her- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 105 
 
 self. Of course, that was not the way she for 
 mulated her argument, but it was nevertheless 
 the inevitable inference from her mode of rea 
 soning. 
 
 Since her discovery of her mistake in regard 
 to Tita s birth, and especially since her visit 
 in his library, Bodill had become a moral hero 
 to Miss Dimpleton. She was not madly and 
 romantically in love with him, but she re 
 garded him as a highly developed and excep 
 tional specimen of the human race, and as 
 peculiarly fitted for a life-long companionship 
 with herself. He was supremely desirable to 
 her in every legitimate relation in which a man 
 could come to a woman, and she could see 
 nothing undignified or unwomanly in her exert 
 ing herself to become equally desirable to him. 
 If a little extra manoeuvring was needed, she 
 excused herself with the reflection that men 
 were naturally a little obtuse and less clear 
 sighted than women, and would be more likely 
 to yield to an impulse of tenderness or of pity 
 rather than weigh rationally their chances of 
 happiness with two differently endowed women. 
 
106 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 Tita more than justified Miss Dimpleton s 
 expectations in regard to her social success. 
 She made a sensation the first morning she 
 appeared on the beach. Within a short time 
 she " became the rage," to use the favorite 
 phrase of her admirers. Her toilets were 
 studied by hundreds of envious eyes, and re 
 ported by the local correspondents of the New 
 York papers. "Wherever Tita went (always 
 under Miss Dimpleton s protecting wing), gen 
 tlemen sprang up about her as if by magic. 
 During an hour in the morning, she held court 
 from her phaeton on the beach, and astonished 
 her protectress by the ease with which she 
 adapted herself to the conversational tone of 
 every one who came up to address her. In 
 the afternoons, when, during the fashionable 
 hour, she lolletl at Miss Dimpleton s side in 
 their carriage, and returned, with a queenly air, 
 the salutations of the passing equestrians, 
 there was probably not a person the whole 
 length of the avenue who called forth more 
 exclamations of wonder and admiration, or 
 concerning whom more inquiries were made. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 107 
 
 Miss Dimpleton congratulated herself on Tita s 
 receptivity for frivolous impressions, and re 
 flected, with half-suppressed satisfaction, that, 
 without much effort on her part, the charming 
 little recluse of Jersey City was being trans 
 formed into an accomplished worldling. She 
 had evidently needed only the opportunity. 
 Miss Jessie did not know, however, what a 
 superior and wholly philosophical view this 
 absurd little Tita was taking of the dazzling 
 Vanity Fair at which she was expected to 
 " assist " in a more active capacity than that 
 of a spectator. Nor was she aware that Tita 
 spent an hour every night, no matter how late 
 she returned home, in describing to Quintus 
 the doings of the day. Her daily bulletins 
 were, to the unprejudiced eyes of their recipi 
 ent, the wittiest and most brilliant specimens 
 of epistolary writing that had appeared in any 
 literature. He read them aloud to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hanson, who somehow failed to appreciate any 
 of the good points, and was even tempted, to 
 take Mr. Dimpleton into his confidence, merely 
 to show him what a wonderful creature Tita 
 
108 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 was. Many and many a lonely hour did he 
 beguile in reading and re-reading the funny 
 little backhanded epistles (for Tita s penman 
 ship was her weak point, though her spelling 
 was irreproachable), gloating over the multi 
 tude of affectionate absurdities which were pre 
 fixed to his name, and rejoicing in the fresh 
 and pure spirit which seemed to exhale from 
 every word and syllable. Of course he missed 
 her sorely, but the generosity of his love did 
 not allow him to pine, and far less to urge her 
 return. She was having a useful experience 
 of life ; and he well, he was passing through a 
 necessary discipline. 
 
 Among Tita s many adorers, all of whom 
 were encouraged by the diplomatic Miss Dim- 
 pleton, there were especially two whose atten 
 tions toward the middle of the season grew 
 sufficiently pronounced to cause the usual ru 
 mors of engagements and refusals and recon 
 ciliations, and whatever other contingencies 
 may occur in a man s pre-matrimonial career. 
 The one was Count von Markenstein, a former 
 attache of the German legation at Washington, 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 109 
 
 and the other Mr. Horace Dibble, a very 
 harmless young gentleman who had had the 
 misfortune to inherit a million. The Count 
 was a tall and superbly built man of thirty, 
 with a beautiful blond beard, and hands 
 which would have been no less remarkable if 
 he had taken less pains to exhibit them to ad 
 vantage. He was indefatigable in arranging 
 sailing parties, to which he invited thirty 
 ladies for the sake of concealing his preference 
 for one ; he trotted and cantered at all hours 
 past the Dimpleton villa, with a view to show 
 ing his elegant horsemanship ; and he bore 
 with unfailing good-humor Tita s caprices, and 
 her often very pointed rebuffs. Young ladies 
 must be expected to be enigmatical, he rea 
 soned, and they should be allowed a certain 
 latitude in their caprices previous to mar 
 riage. But he was acquainted with a course of 
 post-matrimonial discipline which would soon 
 correct all little irregularities of conduct, sen 
 timents, and opinions. The Count was an 
 officer in the German army, and had great 
 faith in the efficacy of discipline. Tita was 
 
110 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 far too fearless and independent, he thought; 
 but as she was otherwise so wholly adorable, 
 her minor failings might readily be forgiven 
 until the time came for correcting them. 
 
 Poor Tita had not the remotest suspicion of 
 the sinister designs which Count yon Marken- 
 stein was harboring in his bosom. To her 
 he was merely a ponderous young man who 
 waltzed delightfully, spoke indifferent English, 
 and was inclined to be didactic. It was therefore 
 a genuine surprise to her when, one evening, 
 without a word of warning, he flung himself at 
 her feet in the old operatic style, and made 
 some preposterous requests which she never 
 could think of granting. She fled in dismay 
 into the library, where Miss Dimple ton was 
 sitting deeply absorbed in Buckle s " History 
 of Civilization," and declared that she was 
 afraid the Count was ill. Miss Dimpleton, who 
 supposed he had fainted, rushed into the par 
 lor with a bottle of eau de Cologne in one hand, 
 and a decanter of water in the other, but saw 
 nothing at all ludicrous in the situation when 
 she discovered her mistake. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. Ill 
 
 When Miss Jessie returned, Tita observed 
 that she had that strained expression about 
 her mouth which always indicated that she 
 was angry. 
 
 "Tita," she said, in a severe tone, "I am 
 greatly shocked to think that you could behave 
 so rudely to a man of Count von Markenstein s 
 importance. Why, any girl in Newport would 
 be proud to receive his addresses." 
 
 "Then the Count has been making you a 
 confession," said the undaunted Tita. 
 
 " The Count told me enough to give me the 
 clue to the situation. And I was obliged to 
 apologize for you." 
 
 "I am very sorry you took that trouble, for 
 it was the Count who ought to have apolo 
 gized to me for behaving so ridiculously. 
 Now, tell me what would you have done if a 
 man, whom you supposed to be sane, sud 
 denly flung himself at your feet, and pro 
 ceeded to recite what appeared to be a piece 
 from Kobert le Diable, or some other lurid 
 opera?" 
 
 " I would have raised him up, and told him 
 
112 QUEEN TTTAXIA. 
 
 that we could converse to better advantage 
 standing or sitting." 
 
 " Well, that might have been better, I ad 
 mit And I will do that, next time a man 
 loses his reason in my presence." 
 
 " Perhaps this may have been yonr last op 
 portunity," observed Miss Dimpleton, primly. 
 
 " So much the better. I always find men 
 more agreeable before they have taken leave 
 of their senses." 
 
 "And they would undoubtedly find you 
 more agreeable if you would control that 
 unruly tongue of yours, which wags very 
 thoughtlessly, and often makes witty but ill- 
 advised remarks. Men, my child, are not at 
 tracted by young ladies who have an eye for 
 their weaknesses, and who are capable of tak 
 ing a humorous view of them." 
 
 " And tell me why should I be so anxious 
 to attract men ? I never cared a straw for any 
 man but Quint ; and he always laughs at my 
 funny remarks, and kisses me, and says, 
 Naughty Queen Titania ! and then I always 
 feel encouraged to go on." 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 113 
 
 " Mr. Bodill, I am afraid, has systematically 
 spoiled you. He ought to have extracted the 
 sting in your tongue while it was yet small, 
 and not allowed it to grow until it is capable 
 of doing you harm. You know that it is only 
 the unmarriageable bees that sting, and they 
 have to spend their lives working for the mar 
 ried queen and her children. But the married 
 gentlemen bees, who failed to detect their 
 charms, they despatch into eternity by way of 
 revenge." 
 
 " What an admirable arrangement ! I ap 
 prove of that highly, although I should be 
 sorry to see Quint fall a victim to a vindictive 
 spinster when he finally makes his choice. I 
 shall put him on his guard, however, and tell 
 him to be sure not to fail to discover any 
 body s charms." 
 
 Miss Dimpleton looked up seriously from 
 Buckle, whom she had all the while made a 
 pretence of reading, and scrutinized Tita s face 
 with an uneasy glance. But Tita looked so 
 gay and innocent, it was impossible to believe 
 her guilty of a malicious intention. 
 
XIII. 
 
 ABOUT the first of October, the Dimpletons 
 returned to the city. Mr. Dibble and the in 
 defatigable Count also began to find the sea 
 shore unpleasant about the same date, and 
 might have been seen at any time of the day, 
 during the month of October, lounging at the 
 windows or in the billiard-room of a certain 
 club for fashionable idlers. 
 
 It was rumored that the Dimpletons were 
 going to give a magnificent party for Tita, in 
 order, as it were, to introduce her publicly as a 
 recognized member of their social world and a 
 proper recipient of invitations. Her success 
 at Newport had made her a conspicuous per 
 sonage, and there was much conjecture afloat 
 regarding her origin. Whence she came and 
 who she was, no one could tell with certainty ; 
 and Miss Dimpleton, whenever she was di 
 rectly appealed to, always answered, placidly : 
 " She is a dear friend of ours, whom we expect 
 to spend the winter with us." 
 
 114 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 115 
 
 That was hardly sufficient to check curios 
 ity ; but as no further information could be 
 elicited, and as Tita, moreover, was a young 
 lady of fine bearing and social accomplish 
 ments, their circle of society in the city (as at 
 Newport) was only too glad to accept her for 
 what she was, without reference to her ante 
 cedents. 
 
 Miss Dimpleton, who had been much cha 
 grined by Tita s supercilious treatment of her 
 most eligible adorers, had resolved to manoeu 
 vre more actively in her behalf than she had 
 ventured to do during the summer. She ex 
 erted herself earnestly to gain Tita s friendship 
 and confidence, embraced her (a little awk 
 wardly, perhaps,) at bedtime, and showed an 
 affectionate solicitude for her comfort, which 
 puzzled Tita the more because she could not 
 more than half reciprocate. To her Miss Dim 
 pleton always remained a formidable phenom 
 enon. She told herself a hundred times a day 
 that Miss Dimpleton was as kind as she could 
 be ; and whenever a disloyal thought would 
 knock for admission to her mind, she would 
 
116 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 make an effort to brush, it away as one does a 
 cobweb. But cobwebs have a way of entan 
 gling themselves in one s fingers the more one 
 tries to get rid of them ; and she was greatly 
 tempted to unburden her heart to Quintus, 
 who came regularly twice a week to see her, 
 and then usually stayed to dine with the fam 
 ily. But some curious, dim apprehension al 
 ways checked her tongue, and, at all events, 
 the open-hearted and innocent Quint would 
 never suspect any human being of double-deal 
 ing, and far less of a complicated intrigue. 
 She wondered what had happened to her, or 
 what transformation she had undergone, since 
 she left Quint. Instead of flinging herself 
 on his neck at their first meeting after her 
 return, as she had anticipated doing, and as 
 she still longed to do, she had greeted him 
 with a formal dutiful caress, and then seated 
 herself to converse with him as if he had been 
 an accidental acquaintance. Quintus, too, some 
 how seemed ill at ease ; he sat gazing at her 
 with an anxious smile, asked her how she had 
 enjoyed herself, whether she would like to go 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 117 
 
 back, etc. But it was evident that lie was 
 quite overawed by the splendor of her toilet, 
 the perfection of her manner, and the whole 
 newness of her personality. Tita felt the awk 
 wardness of the situation acutely, and would 
 have given worlds to know what Quintus was 
 thinking about her. Never had he seemed to 
 her dearer than in this moment. That good 
 and noble face, those honest blue eyes, and 
 the kind smile which lighted up his features 
 so wondrously she could never be tired of 
 gazing at them. She excused herself imme 
 diately after dinner that night ; and when Miss 
 Jessie came up, an hour later, she found her 
 lying on the tiger-skin rug before the fire 
 place, and sobbing like a heart-broken child. 
 On inquiring, Miss Dimpleton learned that 
 she, Tita, was not at all nice ; that, in fact, she 
 was horrid, and that no one liked her except 
 a ridiculous foreign Count and another man 
 who hadn t two coherent ideas in his head. 
 Against this species of unreason Miss Jessie 
 felt herself utterly helpless. Nevertheless, 
 from a sense of duty, she sat down calmly 
 
118 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 to refute Tita s assertions, beginning with 
 her imputation against Mr. Dibble s in 
 tellect. Tita, however, refused to be com 
 forted. 
 
 Scenes like this became more frequent as the 
 months progressed, especially after Miss Jessie 
 and Quintus had decided to resume their Ho 
 meric readings ; and when they talked at the 
 dinner table about the Greek ideal, as expressed 
 in Hector rather than in Achilles, and compared 
 these gentlemen with Siegfried, in the " Mbe- 
 lungen " lay, poor Tita felt as if they had en 
 tered into a conspiracy against her happiness, 
 and her tiny brain sometimes seemed about to 
 explode with indignation. That Quintus could 
 be so heartless as to sit and talk for a whole 
 hour about topics which he knew were be 
 yond her reach, when he must be well aware 
 that Miss Jessie had introduced them merely 
 for the purpose of making him feel her superi 
 ority to Tita that was the drop which made 
 her cup of woe run over. And to see his face 
 light up with responsive ardor whenever Miss 
 Jessie made a happy remark as frequently 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 119 
 
 she did, it was more than mortal heart could 
 bear. It never occurred to her that it might 
 be Homer and not Miss Dimple ton who was 
 her rival. She was too offended and indignant 
 to make such nice discriminations, and she in 
 flicted much unnecessary suffering upon her 
 self by the rashness with which she jumped 
 at mortifying conclusions. Another source of 
 Annoyance was Mr. Dibble s unwearied at 
 tentions. Apparently he was conducting a 
 carefully plotted campaign against Tita s 
 heart. One week he assaulted her with bon 
 bons in exquisite boxes of ingenious shapes; 
 and when that had no effect, he caused a floral 
 shower to descend upon her at the most unex 
 pected hours. Another week he beguiled her, 
 with Miss Dimpleton as chaperone, to ride with 
 him in the park, in a turn-out and with a span 
 of roans which would have appealed, in their 
 possessor s behalf, to a heart of stone. Horse 
 back rides, too, were proposed ; but Tita could 
 not be induced to make the venture, ostensibly 
 because she had no confidence in her eques 
 trian skill. Mr. Dibble s splendid bays (accom- 
 
120 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 panied by a groom in buckskin knee-breeches) 
 stood pawing the pavement in vain in front of 
 the Dimpleton mansion; while Tita, hidden 
 behind the curtain in her bedroom, stood 
 battling with temptation, one moment on the 
 point of surrendering to the charms of the 
 horses, and in the next yielding to her fear of 
 Quint s disapproval, if she encouraged a man 
 whom she knew it would be impossible for her 
 to marry. 
 
 The Count, too, continued his visits at the 
 house, and had long interviews with Miss Dim 
 pleton, from which both departed with pro 
 digiously solemn countenances. Tita was be 
 ginning to congratulate herself on her freedom 
 from further persecution, when certain ominous 
 events happened which could not but cause 
 apprehension. The Count sent her a superbly 
 bound and illuminated copy of Thomas a Kem- 
 pis s "Imitation of Christ" (a gift from his 
 mother at his confirmation), and added a 
 high-flown inscription of his own which made 
 Tita shiver. To her it seemed a piece of im 
 pertinence to send such a valuable gift to a 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 121 
 
 comparatively strange lady; and she would 
 have promptly returned it if Miss Dimpleton 
 had not peremptorily interfered. A very for 
 tunate occurrence, however, soon turned the 
 tide of affairs in an unforeseen direction. On a 
 Sunday in October, the Count had, according 
 to his custom, met Miss Dimpleton and Tita 
 at church, and the former had invited him to 
 accompany them home and stay to dinner. 
 As they were walking down the avenue, con 
 versing of indifferent things, the Count sud 
 denly stopped to gaze at a newly repaired 
 church, and exclaimed : 
 
 " Oh, vat a peautiful shpeetle !" 
 
 " Yes, it is certainly very handsome," replied 
 Miss Dimpleton, gravely. 
 
 But Tita, the unhappy Tita, although she 
 knew perfectly how rude she was, began to 
 shake internally, and the more she tried to rid 
 herself of the "peautiful shpeetle" the more 
 irresistibly comical it appeared to her, and 
 after several moments of ineffectual struggle, 
 she burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. 
 She was about to apologize for her rudeness 
 
122 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 when the Count, who had ignored her amuse 
 ment as long as possible, now stiffly raised his 
 hat and said : 
 
 " Ladies, I have the honor to bid you good- 
 day." 
 
 That was the end of Count von Markenstein s 
 courtship, and Miss Dimpleton now concen 
 trated all her hopes on Mr. Dibble, who was 
 of the slow and faithful kind, and had not 
 sufficient confidence in his own irresistibility 
 to risk a premature proposal. It was exceed 
 ingly provoking to be obliged to strike a name 
 like that of Count von Markenstein from the 
 list of one s visitors ; but as there was now no 
 help for it, it had to be borne with philosophy. 
 Moreover, Miss Jessie was not the ordinary 
 type of snob who runs after great names whose 
 only distinction is their antiquity. She was, 
 perhaps, rather an intellectual snob, who would 
 have felt prouder of a call from Browning or 
 Herbert Spencer than of one from the Prince 
 of Wales. She would have liked to rebuke 
 Tita severely for her rudeness to the Count ; 
 but fearing that it would be impolitic, and 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 123 
 
 might send the sensitive girl flying back into 
 Quintus s arms, she restrained her indignation, 
 and merely remarked that she regretted the 
 unfortunate occurrence. 
 
XIV. 
 
 TITA S party was fixed for the sixth of Decem 
 ber. All day long during the preceding week 
 the coupe was in requisition, and the stores 
 were ransacked in search of the choicest pro 
 ducts which the market could afford. Tita s 
 costume was planned with a seriousness as if 
 the fate of the nation depended upon the dis 
 position of this ribbon, or that bit of lace. 
 Months before, artistes of international reputa 
 tion had been consulted, and had submitted 
 their designs, which were again submitted to 
 others for criticism. Miss Dimpleton descend 
 ed from her Homeric altitudes of thought, and 
 discussed millinery, not enthusiastically and 
 vehemently, as the majority of women do, but 
 weightily and soberly, and with a minute atten 
 tion to details which she never had displayed 
 in her own behalf. She wished to make Tita 
 
 
 
 so completely intoxicated with her success that 
 a return to Quint s narrow world and sober 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 125 
 
 concerns would seem an utter impossibility; 
 and, judging by the ardor with which Tita fre 
 quently, when she was in the mood for it, en 
 tered into social enjoyments, she could not be 
 far wrong in supposing that the relapse into 
 her former obscurity was no longer contem 
 plated with unalloyed pleasure. To be Mrs. 
 Dibble, with a million or more, would certainly, 
 to any properly constructed young lady, appear 
 preferable, especially when Mr. Dibble was 
 inoffensive and pliable a mere unobtrusive 
 appendage to his wealth. Miss Dimple ton was 
 proudly conscious of being herself superior to 
 this kind of allurements, but then she had the 
 wealth already, and what she needed to give 
 dignity to these sordidly accumulated posses 
 sions was exceptional refinement and intellec 
 tual culture. She wished above all things to 
 be exceptional, and the possession of moderate 
 wealth was by no means a claim to distinction 
 in New York. Tita, however, could not be ex 
 pected to appreciate or to cherish such com 
 plicated ambitions. She had only blindly de 
 sired what happened, for very different and 
 
126 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 loftier reasons, to be equally desirable to Miss 
 Dimpleton ; and slie must be influenced to see 
 that such a desire, on her part, was preposter 
 ous. 
 
 It was an amusing spectacle to see Tita, on 
 the evening of December 6th, standing in the 
 middle of her room with her elbows uplifted, 
 and surrounded by an admiring circle of dress 
 makers and servants. A French modiste, with 
 pins in her mouth and a determined frown (not 
 of wrath, but of energy) on her brow, was 
 kneeling behind her, bestowing her attention 
 on some obscure fastenings about the skirt of 
 the dress, and a maid was frisking about with 
 flowers, and hand-glasses, and crimping-irons, 
 and what not, in her hands, and bursting every 
 now and then into ecstatic exclamations at 
 Tita s loveliness. Tita, whose vanity had been 
 persistently fed during the last eight months, 
 could almost feel herself grow taller as she 
 contemplated the effect of this rich and marvel 
 lous attire in the pier-glass. She walked like 
 a queen, and heard with delight the silken rus 
 tle of her train. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 127 
 
 A little after nine o clock, the guests began 
 to arrive. When the bell rang for the first 
 time, Tita s heart shot up into her throat. She 
 ran (or, rather she would have run, had her 
 dress permitted it) toward the parlor door 
 where Miss Jessie was standing, and took her 
 station at her side in the prescribed attitude. 
 She ran rapidly over all her instructions in her 
 head, and got her mouth into position to say 
 what she had been told was proper to say, 
 raised her eyes slowly, when, lo and behold 
 Quint! That was too much for Tita s com 
 posure. She was about to yield to her mirth 
 in her usual hearty fashion, when Miss Dim- 
 pleton, foreseeing accidents, said, grimly : " Ee- 
 member your dress, please," and Tita immedi 
 ately sobered. Quintus still stood bowing in 
 front of her, and wondered what there was in 
 his appearance that was so ridiculous. 
 
 " I wanted to be the first to see Queen Tita- 
 nia in her glory," he said, with a curious look, 
 which was both diffident and searching. "I 
 wanted to see her before the glare of the light 
 shall have paled her loveliness never so little, 
 
128 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 and before the jostlings of the crowd shall 
 have rubbed the flower dust off her butterfly 
 wings." 
 
 "I suspect that metaphor is intended as a 
 rebuke to me," said Miss Dimple ton, with a 
 tentative smile. " It was I who undertook to 
 guard Tita against such calamities." 
 
 "It was not my intention to reproach any 
 one," said Quintus, as he pressed Miss Dim- 
 pleton s hand and turned to give place to the 
 next arrival. Just then Tita caught a glimpse 
 of his back, and suddenly observed that his 
 dress-coat was very old-fashioned. The sleeves 
 were too tight and the skirts too long, and the 
 lapels smaller than the fashion of the day re 
 quired. Should she allow him to go about in 
 that costume, which certainly would make him 
 conspicuous in a very undesirable manner, and 
 render him ridiculous in the eyes of the people? 
 No ; she would rather take the risk of displeas 
 ing him. He, of course, would never detect 
 what sort of figure he cut ; but, during these 
 months, she had grown to be acutely sensitive 
 to the world s opinion of him. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 129 
 
 " Quint," she said, touching his arm gently, 
 " pardon me if I venture to be impertinent, but 
 you know it is an old privilege of mine. Would 
 you, as a favor to me, take a cab and drive 
 down to a tailor on Broadway, whose address 
 I will give you? He makes a business of 
 hiring out dress-coats to gentlemen ; and yours, 
 dear Quint, is not exactly stylish." 
 
 "Why," exclaimed Quint, in astonishment, 
 " it was made for my graduation, and I haven t 
 worn it much since." 
 
 This seemed to Quint s unworldly intellect 
 a striking proof that his coat must be strictly 
 comme ilfaut. He had worn it on so important 
 an occasion as his graduation, and in the pres 
 ence of a select audience; and as he had 
 rarely worn it since, it was evident that its 
 stylishness had remained unimpaired. 
 
 "You know you don t understand those 
 things, Quint," said Tita, with an appealing 
 look. " And now I can t explain them to you. 
 But, pray, do what I ask of you." 
 
 "Well, anything to please your majesty," he 
 answered, with a puzzled smile, which to Tita 
 
130 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 was quite pathetic. She followed him with 
 her eyes as he mounted the stairs, and saw him 
 look at the sleeves of his coat with an air as if 
 to say : 
 
 " Well, I should like to know what it is that 
 isn t right about you." 
 
 When he returned, an hour later, with an 
 irreproachable coat, the large salon was crowd 
 ed, and the red-and-white awning which led 
 from the carriages to the front door was 
 crowded with rustling and perfumed couples. 
 Tita still stood at the door, bowing and hand 
 shaking, but her smile was perhaps a little 
 forced, and her flushed cheeks seemed to indi 
 cate that something was laboring within her. 
 The fact was that, since Quint s departure, 
 she did not feel at all so sure that she had 
 done right in criticising his remarkable dress- 
 coat. The mere suggestion of a criticism on 
 her part must have appeared like black ingrati 
 tude to him ; and, moreover, there is always a 
 hint of patronage or superiority in even the 
 mildest comment on clothes and personal ap 
 pearance. When she saw Quint trying to 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 131 
 
 wedge his way unnoticed into the back parlor, 
 she held up her fan, and after a moment s 
 hesitation he came toward her. 
 
 "Have you forgiven me, Quint? " she asked, 
 remorsefully, while she pressed his hand warm 
 ly. "You know it would make me very un 
 happy to think that I had displeased you." 
 
 "You did right, my%dear," he answered, 
 kindly, " to give me a hint which no one could 
 have given me but you." 
 
 Mr. Dibble now came to claim Tita s part 
 nership for a waltz which she had been rash 
 enough to promise him ; and excusing herself 
 to Bodill, she presently swung out upon the 
 floor, encircled by Mr. Dibble s arm. Quintus, 
 who so often in spirit had anticipated his un 
 selfish delight at witnessing just such a spec 
 tacle, felt a horrible pang darting through him, 
 and would have liked to strangle Mr. Dibble 
 for presuming to touch her. Hardly had the 
 young millionaire conducted her to her seat, 
 before a dozen other gentlemen surrounded her, 
 and displayed an extraordinary eagerness to 
 scrawl their names on her card. Quintus ob- 
 
132 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 served, with a certain contemptuous admir 
 ation, that their hair, their moustaches, and 
 their clothes were in that state of absolute 
 perfection which is unattainable in any one 
 who does not make the study of his toilet an 
 absorbing business. He discovered for the 
 first time his own inferiority in point of sar 
 torial and tonsorial finish, and, strive as he 
 might, he did not quite succeed in feeling 
 proud of it. 
 
 During the rest of the evening and half the 
 night, Tita was in incessant demand. Men 
 who imagined that manliness required them 
 to take a cynical view of women stood in 
 groups about the supper- table and raved about 
 her. Even upstairs in the billiard-room, where 
 a dozen disenchanted bachelors in the thir 
 ties and forties were lounging and discoursing 
 social ethics over fragrant cigars, it was frankly 
 admitted that the man who should catch her 
 might be considered a lucky dog. A foreign 
 ambassador, whose acquaintance the Dimple- 
 tons had made at Newport, and who was the 
 great light of the evening, put the stamp of his 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 133 
 
 approval upon Tita, and thereby made it "good 
 form "to be enthusiastic about her. He de 
 clared that she was ravissante, and that she 
 would be sure to make a sensation in the great 
 salons of the Old World. He thereupon danced a 
 dignified quadrille with her, and came near mak 
 ing her famous by kissing her hand at parting. 
 Quintus, who had been roaming from room 
 to room like an uneasy ghost, could not help 
 perceiving that Tita s party was a success, and 
 that she herself was exciting universal admira 
 tion. This was exactly the situation he had 
 dreamed of in his early aspirations for her 
 she feted and worshipped, and he standing by 
 blissfully enjoying her triumph at all events, 
 he endeavored to persuade himself that the 
 latter half of his prophetic hope was as fully 
 realized as the former. He attributed all his 
 present discontent to the trifling episode of the 
 dress-coat, which, he thought, had somehow 
 untuned him for the evening. He would have 
 entertained a perfect contempt for himself if 
 he had been forced to recognize the fact that, 
 so far from being that unselfish and fatherly 
 
 
 
134: QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 individual which he had fondly imagined him 
 self to be, he was, on the contrary, at the pres 
 ent moment in a rage of jealousy. Every one 
 who touched Tita or whispered a flattering 
 platitude in her ear became, that very instant, 
 his natural enemy, and he began, in a dim and 
 general fashion, to cherish murderous designs 
 against him. These sleek, well-tailored young 
 gentlemen with well-bred smiles and well- 
 trained moustaches became positively odious to 
 him, and he would have liked, on philanthropic 
 grounds, to exterminate the whole species. 
 What empty and meaningless lives they must 
 lead! and what vapid thoughts must move 
 within their well-trimmed craniums ! Surely 
 Tita was worthy of something better than this 
 shallow and frivolous fate. "Why did Miss 
 Dimpleton, who had herself so many nobler 
 interests, exert herself to make Tita value the 
 things which she herself professed to despise ? 
 To be sure, he had himself given his consent 
 to have her introduced to society, and as this 
 was society, it was evident that he had no cause 
 for complaint. 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 135 
 
 While making these lugubrious reflections, 
 Bodill had been seated in a corner of the 
 billiard-room, smoking and listening to the 
 intermittent and fragmentary remarks of the 
 players. When he had finished his cigar, his 
 uneasy curiosity about Tita prompted him to 
 descend once more to the first floor, whence a 
 subdued hum of music rose, and burst into sud 
 den distinctness whenever the door was opened 
 He had just reached the first landing of the 
 stairs when he was suddenly arrested by the 
 sound of two voices talking earnestly together, 
 and, looking down, he saw Tita and Mr. Dibble, 
 engaged in a hushed but excited conversation. 
 
 "I tell you, it is impossible, Mr. Dibble," 
 Tita was saying. " We are not at all suited 
 for each other ; and then I don t love you at 
 all ; so, of course, it is out of the question." 
 
 " But I love you enough to make Up for it," 
 persisted Mr. Dibble. " If you will only marry 
 me, I am willing to take my chances after 
 ward." 
 
 Quintus, who had made his shoes creak 
 loudly at every step he took, now interrupted 
 
136 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 the interview and passed down the stairs. Tita 
 looked up, a little startled, but seeing who it 
 was, she jumped up and seized his arm with 
 something of her old vehemence. 
 
 " Oh, Quint," she said, gazing affectionately 
 up into his eyes, "how glad I am that I have 
 found you ! Dear Quint, there is no one like 
 you." 
 
 In her joy at having escaped from Mr. Dib 
 ble s embarrassing importunities, she felt an 
 irrational impulse to embrace Quintus, as 
 something dear and familiar amid all the per 
 plexing novelties which surrounded her. In 
 his felicity at having her near him, he quite 
 forgot to answer, and before they reached the 
 ground floor they were joined by Miss Dimple- 
 ton, who was making a visible effort to be 
 amiable. Tita, to whom Quintus s silence ap 
 peared enigmatical, supposed that he intended 
 to repel her and ascribed his changed conduct 
 toward her to the increased frequency, of late, 
 of the Homeric lucubrations. Therefore, with 
 the impulsiveness which characterized all her 
 actions, she let go his arm, made him a sweep- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 137 
 
 ing bow, and accepted the escort of a downy- 
 bearded young gentleman, who, with a card in 
 his hand, stood expecting her. Quintus open 
 ed his eyes wide in astonishment, and then 
 looked questioningly at his hostess, as if he 
 hoped that she would offer him an explanation. 
 
 "What is the matter with the child?" he 
 asked, finally. 
 
 " Tita has grown very capricious of late," 
 answered Miss Jessie. " The homage and in 
 cessant flatteries of her many admirers have 
 turned her head." 
 
 "Poor little girl!" said Bodill, compas 
 sionately. " She has not learned yet how little 
 those things are worth." 
 
 " I have endeavored to teach her," Miss 
 Dimpleton was about to say, but then she re 
 membered that that was not strictly true, and 
 she dexterously turned the half-uttered phrase 
 and said : 
 
 " I have frequently regretted her suscepti 
 bility to flattery." 
 
 To her surprise, Mr. Bodill, instead of look 
 ing shocked, gave a low laugh as he said : 
 
138 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 "To think of little Tita being courted and 
 wooed, distributing judicious snubs and listen 
 ing to tender nonsense. It is very amusing." 
 
 Mr. Bodill certainly was a very puzzling 
 character, thought Miss Jessie, and he thought 
 so himself, too, as he remembered how, only a 
 moment ago, he had been devoured with jeal 
 ousy of Tita s adorers, and had been well-nigh 
 ready to join their ranks himself. But the note 
 of censure in Miss Dimpleton s voice had 
 aroused all his old paternal tenderness, and 
 made Tita again seem the child that needed 
 his protection. 
 
XV. 
 
 IT was toward tliree o clock in the morning 
 when the last indefatigable dancers ceased to 
 whirl in a ring, when the ladies ceased to wind 
 through the fascinating figures of the German, 
 and the musicians ceased to perspire over their 
 violoncello, harp, and violins. The striped 
 awning, constructed for the protection of deli 
 cate toilets, proved very useful to the depart 
 ing guests, who would otherwise have been 
 drenched on their way to their carriages. For 
 a south-west wind, accompanied with rain and 
 sleet, had sprung up during the early part of 
 the night, and was now whirling up the avenue, 
 lashing the window-panes and pulling vigor 
 ously at the few exposed shutters. 
 
 Tita, quite exhausted with excitement and 
 the incessant motion, had just retired to her 
 room, where her maid was engaged in taking 
 down and combing out her hair, when Miss 
 
 139 
 
140 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 Dimplefcon entered, having first announced her 
 intention with a knock. 
 
 " Margaret," she said to the maid, " leave us 
 for a few moments." 
 
 She seated herself with her usual deliberate- 
 ness in a pink satin easy-chair (which seemed 
 created for lotus-eating), pulled off her slippers 
 (which were not created for walking), and as 
 a preliminary, let her eyes wander about the 
 luxuriously furnished apartment. 
 
 "Tita," she said at last, rubbing her feet 
 over the delicious nap of the tiger rug, " tell 
 me now, honestly, whether you have any in 
 tention of returning to your former mode of 
 life." 
 
 Tita, who was apparently engaged in disen 
 tangling the hearts which, in the course of the 
 night, had got caught in the golden meshes of 
 her hair, looked up with a startled glance, and 
 was for a moment at a loss for an answer. 
 
 "I have a very particular reason for asking, * 
 continued Miss Jessie. "I cannot look on 
 with indifference when I see you coolly, and 
 almost contemptuously, rejecting every chance 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 141 
 
 which presents itself of providing for your 
 future, and gaining an established position in 
 society." 
 
 " Mr. Dibble has been making a confidante of 
 you, I perceive," remarked Tita, with a hair 
 pin in her mouth, and letting a great golden 
 wave roll down upon her bare shoulder. 
 
 " It matters little who has been making a 
 confidante of me," retorted the other, sharply. 
 " The question is, what you really mean by 
 such unaccountable behavior ?" 
 
 " My year will soon be up," said Tita, in 
 specting with much interest the ends of a yel 
 low lock which apparently had some mysteri 
 ous peculiarity, invisible to the uninitiated, 
 "and if you desire it, I am quite willing to 
 take my leave at short notice. But I will not 
 submit to dictation " (here the yellow lock was 
 dropped and forgotten) " from any one in re 
 gard to my choice of a husband, as that is a 
 question which really concerns no one but 
 myself and the unfortunate man who is rash 
 enough to take me." 
 
 "It was not my intention to dictate," an- 
 
142 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 swered Miss Dimpleton ; " and I think it is 
 very ungenerous in you to suspect me of such 
 a sordid motive as you have just implied. I 
 need hardly assure you that we shall be glad 
 to keep you here as long as you are willing to 
 stay. If I presumed to offer my advice in the 
 question you refer to, it was only because, in 
 such a matter, I distrust your judgment, and 
 that of any one of your age, and imagine that 
 my own knowledge of the world might be of 
 some use to you." 
 
 Poor soft-hearted Tita felt immediately re 
 morseful. She had been ungenerous ; but it 
 was only because she was so horribly tired 
 that she could not think one rational, far less 
 a generous, thought. IE Miss Jessie would only 
 forgive her, she would listen calmly and col 
 lectedly to all the matrimonial suggestions she 
 might have to offer, although she would not 
 promise beforehand that she would act on all 
 of them. 
 
 " But husbands are such peculiar creatures, 
 you know," she said, trying to coax her com 
 panion out of her severe mood. "I never could 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 143 
 
 imagine what I should do with one. I don t 
 dislike Mr. Dibble now; but if I couldn t escape 
 from his society at pleasure, I know I should 
 not be able to endure him." 
 
 " Tita, you are incorrigible," said Miss Jes 
 sie, relaxing a little from her rigid gravity. 
 " What is ever to become of you, if you persist 
 in taking a humorous view of every man who 
 approaches you?" 
 
 "But, to be honest, now, don t you think 
 yourself that men are ridiculous, always, of 
 course, excepting Quint?" 
 
 The question was asked with such evident 
 sincerity that it certainly deserved a sincere 
 answer ; but Miss Jessie, for reasons sufficient 
 to herself, could not very well express her cor 
 dial agreement with Tita s sentiments, and as 
 she was strictly conscientious when a direct 
 question of right and wrong was at issue, she 
 resorted to her inconvenient habit of silence. 
 Tita felt once more rebuffed, and resumed her 
 occupation with her hair. 
 
 "What I came to ask you," began Miss Dim 
 ple ton, after having gazed for a while into the 
 
144 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 fire in the grate, " is whether your refusal of 
 Mr. Dibble is really final? As you know, he is 
 a man of great wealth and of irreproachable 
 character. He would treat you well, supply 
 lavishly all your wants, and undoubtedly make 
 you as happy as women have any right to as 
 pire to be." 
 
 Tita looked absently at the reflection of her 
 beautiful self in the glass, then flung herself 
 back in the chair and contemplated the fres 
 coed Cupids in the ceiling. 
 
 " I am so tired, so very tired," she sighed. 
 ""Why do you insist upon tormenting me at 
 this unearthly hour ? " 
 
 "Then I am to understand that you have 
 not made up your mind definitely ? " 
 
 " No, you are not to understand that. I have 
 made up my mind once for all. You look upon 
 marriage from a different point of view from 
 what I do. Quint says that marriage is in 
 tended to bind two people more closely to 
 gether who love each other dearly. But I do 
 not love Mr. Dibble, and I never shall love 
 him." 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 145 
 
 "Mr. Bodill is an impractical enthusiast, 
 whose advice in such a matter it would be 
 very unsafe to follow." 
 
 Tita sprang up as if something had stung 
 her. The least implication of disrespect to 
 Quintus always roused her as nothing else. 
 
 "No," she cried, "Quint is not an imprac 
 tical enthusiast ; and his advice is always good 
 and noble as he is himself." 
 
 On Miss Jessie this violent partisanship for 
 Bodill had at this moment a very irritating 
 effect. It proved to her that all her labor had 
 been in vain. And was she, who had been ac 
 customed nearly from her cradle to rule, who 
 felt herself the intellectual equal of the first 
 men in the city, was she to be thwarted in her 
 carefully laid plans by the caprices of this in 
 significant doll of a girl ? Her first line of tac 
 tics had failed, but she had another in reserve. 
 
 " Have you ever reflected, Tita," she said, 
 after another long pause, " upon your position 
 as an inmate of Mr. Bodill s house? You are 
 no longer a child, but a grown-up woman, and 
 
 as such you can hardly, for your own sake, con- 
 10 
 
146 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 
 tinue to live on such familiar terms with a 
 young bachelor of thirty-one or two. He is 
 not your father nor your brother, and the world 
 will naturally ask, What is your relation to 
 him ? And, for your own sake, as well as for 
 his, you must heed what the world says." 
 
 A sweetly perplexed look had settled upon 
 Tita s features as Miss Dimpleton commenced 
 this speech, but gradually she grew pale, and 
 suddenly grasped at the back of the chair for 
 support. 
 
 " I don t understand what you mean," she 
 gasped, and in the next instant looked as if a 
 scarlet veil had been flung over her face. 
 
 " I mean," Miss Jessie went on, pitilessly, 
 "that your remaining with Mr. Bodill or re 
 turning to him is an impossibility. You may 
 not have been aware what an amount of trouble 
 you already have caused him. When he was 
 discharged, or, if you choose, was forced to re 
 sign his position in my father s firm, it was on 
 your account. We had been told that you were 
 his daughter, and as he had informed me that 
 he was not married and never had been, my 
 
QUEEN TITANIA- 147 
 
 father naturally took offence. The situation 
 is now no better. In fact, it is worse. Who 
 knows who you are ? You do not know your 
 self who was your father, and still you royally 
 reject one of the best matches in New York. 
 
 You think " 
 
 Miss Jessie had wrought herself into a 
 frenzy of eloquence ; she hardly meant to be 
 as cruel as she was, but she was determined to 
 bring out her last reserves and to use her 
 heaviest artillery. But while she was yet in 
 the midst of her tirade, something half a sob 
 and half a stifled groan burst from Tita s 
 bosom, and flinging her arms above her head, 
 she rushed toward the door and was gone. 
 Miss Dimpleton, eager to finish her arraign 
 ment, leaned back in her chair, expecting that 
 she would presently return ; but a minute or 
 more passed, and a current of cold air swept 
 up through the halls and shook the doors. 
 The windows, too, rattled sympathetically, and 
 the pictures moved on the wall. Just then 
 the wind drove the rain against the large 
 panes with a sound as of a handful of pebbles ; 
 
148 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 Miss Dimpleton shivered. More minutes 
 passed; the bronze clock sounded four dis 
 tinct, melodious strokes. Miss Dimpleton rose 
 and rang for the maid. 
 
 "How cold it is," she said. "Is anything 
 the matter with the furnace ? " 
 
 "No," answered the maid, "but the front 
 door was open. I just closed it." 
 
 Then the truth flashed upon her ; she heard 
 for a moment only the blood pulsing in her 
 ears, and that vague oppression which follows 
 the first consciousness of a calamity stole over 
 her. 
 
 " Call father quickly," she said, as soon as 
 she could catch her breath, "and order the 
 horses." 
 
XVI. 
 
 TITA had acted under an impulse too strong 
 to admit of reflection. She felt outraged and 
 insulted by the suspicion cast upon her birth, 
 and still more by the cruel insinuation which, 
 in her innocence, had never once occurred to 
 her. She had always been with Quintus, and 
 it was proper and natural that she should be 
 with no one but Quintus. Heedless of her at 
 tire, she had hastened down the stairs and out 
 through the door, desiring only to hide her 
 self, to escape humiliation, to get as far away 
 as possible from Miss Dimpleton, who could 
 think such base thoughts and inflict deep 
 wounds so pitilessly. She had not even re 
 membered the rain, nor had she thought 
 where she was going. It was not until she 
 was several blocks away, and the driving sleet 
 had benumbed the tender skin of her neck and 
 face, that she slackened her speed and began 
 to consider whither her feet were carrying her. 
 
 149 
 
150 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 To go back to Quint that was out of the 
 question. Had she not been a perpetual bur 
 den to him from the hour when he first 
 pressed her to his warm and faithful heart? 
 But where could she go, if she did not go to 
 Quintus? He was her only friend, her only 
 comfort and refuge in all the wide world. 
 
 The wind boomed through the long solitary 
 streets, and the little satin slippers were soon 
 as wet as so much paper. Her costly gar 
 ments swept over the muddy sidewalks, and 
 having become thoroughly drenched, clogged 
 her limbs in their flurried and precipitate 
 motion. Her hair felt like a cold wet lump on 
 her neck, and sent repeated shuddering chills 
 through her frame. Her step, too, was be 
 coming feebler, and though she bore up brave 
 ly, she knew that her strength would soon be 
 exhausted. It was a dim consciousness of this 
 which arrested her flight. She leaned against 
 a lamp-post for support, and gazed up at the 
 great dark front of a fine residence, where only 
 a single room was lighted. She suddenly rec 
 ognized the house it was Mr. Dibble s. It 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 151 
 
 was only two weeks since she was there at a 
 luncheon party with Mr. and Mrs. Dimpleton. 
 As she stood there, numb and ready to faint 
 with weariness, the demon woke in Tita s 
 heart, and she could not but listen to the 
 thoughts which he whispered to her. Was 
 not comfort like this soft, warm, and luxuri 
 ous worth all the abstractions of love, honor, 
 and duty? Who would blame her if, from 
 mere powerlessness to resist any longer, she 
 yielded to the importunities of her adorer, and 
 satisfied herself with the common sordid lot of 
 common sordid humanity? She was a very 
 small woman, and a colossal heroism could 
 hardly be expected of her. There was evi 
 dently nothing for her to do but to return to 
 Miss Dimpleton and meekly beg her pardon 
 for the commotion she had occasioned. 
 
 Out of the depths of darkness came the 
 sound of chimes, striking the quarter hour. 
 By some strange association of sound or 
 thought, this clear, mellow tone brought up 
 Quintus s face vividly before her ; and a rush 
 of feeling, quite as indefinable, brought back 
 
152 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 the sweet memories which that face suggested. 
 She remembered what he had taught her, year 
 after year, through the long winter nights, and 
 she yearned with all her soul to throw herself 
 upon his neck and weep repentant tears upon 
 his bosom. The temptation to go back to her 
 recent life was gone ; and turning her face 
 resolutely away from the house, she gathered 
 her strength and trudged on. Farther down 
 the avenue she found an empty cab, and or 
 dered the driver to take her at once to Jersey 
 City. 
 
 About this time Miss Dimpleton and her 
 father were also driving through the storm 
 and the darkness, and, after a vain search, 
 went to police he ad- quarters and gave notice 
 of Tita s disappearance. 
 
 On his return home from the Dimpleton 
 party, Quintus had found a fire drowsing in 
 the fire-place in his study, and, thinking that 
 it was a pity to have it waste its genial warmth, 
 he had seated himself in his accustomed chair 
 and taken down a volume of Emerson contain 
 ing the essay on Fate. This Olympic medi- 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 153 
 
 tation had never yet failed to inspire him with 
 a sense of serene superiority to all the petty 
 annoyances of life, which not even a transcen 
 dental philosopher can escape. From the 
 upper ether of his Emersonian mood, where 
 the large expanses of time and space spread 
 out gloriously around him, he could view even 
 his love for Tita as an affair of small moment, 
 which would not perceptibly affect the destiny 
 of the race, and which in a hundred years 
 would presumably be forgotten. The agitation 
 of the ball was still tingling in his nerves, de 
 tached bits of Strauss waltzes were humming 
 in his brain, and the pang of jealousy was yet 
 nestling, like a dull pain, somewhere about his 
 heart-roots. But the mighty thoughts of the 
 sage, like solemn organ-tones, marched through 
 the sounding eternities, on either hand, and 
 lifted him with their strong upward impulse. 
 The small emotions were soothed into a 
 troubled calm, and life seemed once more 
 dignified and noble. 
 
 While Bodill was thus holding discourse 
 with the universe, he seemed distinctly to hear 
 
154 QUEEN TITANIA. 
 
 some one calling his name ; but, as lie was 
 frequently subject to this illusion, and some 
 times had started up to answer when no one 
 was near, he only turned about in his chair 
 and smiled at the vividness of his imagination. 
 
 " if limitation is power that shall be," 
 
 he went on reading, " if calamities, oppositions, 
 and weights are means and wings " 
 
 But surely that was the sound of a voice in 
 distress, and the voice was familiar. His blood 
 ran cold with terror, as he rushed to the win 
 dow and strove to raise it. His strength had 
 almost deserted him. With a second effort, 
 however, he succeeded. The blinding sleet 
 beat against his face, and a gust of wind swept 
 in and whirled the sparks and ashes of the fire 
 about the room. Under the lamp-post he dis- 
 cerned dimly a woman, who was gazing up 
 toward his window. 
 
 " Oh, Quint, Quint ! " she cried, " open the 
 door quickly ! It is I Tita." 
 
 Her voice broke in the last words with a 
 pitiful hoarseness which cut him to the heart. 
 In an instant he was down the stairs, had torn 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 155 
 
 the front door open, and clasped the trembling 
 form in his embrace. Her bare arms felt like 
 ice as they clung about his neck, and the con 
 gealed sleet hung unmelted in her hair. She 
 made no attempt to speak, but lay listless in 
 his arms, as he bore her up the creaking stairs 
 and entered the old, well-known study. But, 
 as he placed her upon the lounge and pushed 
 it up before the fire, she drew his head close 
 down to her mouth, and whispered : 
 
 "I will never leave you again, Quint 
 never!" 
 
 "No, my darling," he answered, fervently, 
 "never!" 
 
XYII. 
 
 TITA lay ill for a long, long time, and her life 
 was often despaired of. It was not until the 
 spring was well advanced that the color began 
 to return to her cheeks ; then the old merry 
 sparkle was again kindled in her eyes, though 
 at first feebly and pathetically flickering, and 
 the old hearty ring sometimes stole into her 
 laughter. At the least such sign of reviving 
 strength, Quint s face would beam as he sat 
 drawing meditative little puffs from the glow 
 ing depths of the Eastern Question. It was 
 one evening while they were thus seated to 
 gether before the fire, she occupied with some 
 feminine handiwork, and he reading aloud 
 from Browning, that an incident of vital im 
 portance to both occurred. The poem which 
 jwas engaging Quintus s attention, and which 
 he stopped every now and then to discuss with 
 Tita, was appropriately entitled " By the Fire- 
 
 156 
 
QUEEN TITANIA. 157 
 
 side," and in it was a stanza which moved him 
 deeply : 
 
 " Oh, I must feel your brain prompt mine, 
 
 Your heart anticipate my heart, 
 You must be just before, in fine, 
 
 See and make me see, for your part, 
 New depths of the Divine." 
 
 "Now, that is my idea of what a marriage 
 should be," said Quint, putting the book face 
 downward, on his knee. 
 
 "It is very beautiful," remarked Tita, with 
 out looking up. 
 
 " But there is only one heart," he went on, 
 quite naturally, " which could anticipate mine, 
 and one sweet face which is to me a daily reve 
 lation of the Divine." 
 
 " I can t imagine what face that can be," 
 observed Tita, looking up with roguish, tear- 
 filled eyes. 
 
 " But I can," cried Quint, taking the face in 
 question between his palms, and gazing ardent 
 ly at it " Tita, dear, why should we hesitate 
 to take the step which will prevent our ever 
 being parted again ? " 
 
 Tita smiled. She could not see why. 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 THE cataract hummed a strong, steady under 
 tone, and the lighter summer sounds the whir 
 of the locust and the warble of thrushes and 
 linnets rose fitfully and vanished against the 
 heavy background like sun-flushed mists 011 a 
 dark sky. The river, which flowed white and 
 strong in the deep, sang strangely toward 
 night, and followed you like an unconscious 
 melody, wherever you went. But if you stop 
 ped to listen to its voice, the melody vanished 
 and you heard nothing but a vague, tumultuous 
 brawl. The wind, too, sang in the tree-tops ; 
 and in the grass there was a soft, unceasing 
 whisper which was strangely alluring and 
 sweet. From everywhere sounds seemed to be 
 oozing forth gently, dancing in the daylight and 
 H 161 
 
162 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 vanishing. The vault of the sky seemed a vast 
 ocean of sound. 
 
 "It is strange, father, isn t it?" murmured 
 Ingolf, looking toward his father with a face 
 singularly lighted up from within, and eager 
 for sympathy. He was a blonde-haired lad of 
 about sixteen, with large lustrous eyes, and a 
 timid or tentative smile playing about his lips. 
 
 " What is strange ? " asked his father, gruffly. 
 
 " The melodies in the air and and in the 
 grass," answered the boy. His voice grew fee 
 bler and, as it were, apologetic as he spoke, 
 and he finished in a tremulous* whisper. He 
 looked unhappy and seemed to regret having 
 spoken. 
 
 " I hear no melodies," said the father with a 
 vindictive emphasis, taking his clay pipe out of 
 his mouth, and spitting with angry energy. 
 
 The boy sighed and was silent. With un- 
 averted eyes he sat staring at the western 
 mountain chain, which rose like a huge wall 
 tracing its dark outline sharply against the 
 sky. The same strange illumination again 
 broke over his countenance, as if a lamp had 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 1G3 
 
 been lighted within, shimmering through the 
 translucent surface. His father gazed at him 
 with ill-concealed vexation, but gradually his 
 wrath changed into sadness. 
 
 "What is it now, you miserable boy?" he 
 exclaimed, shaking his head mournfully. " What 
 are you hearing now ? " 
 
 " It is the mountain s face," cried the boy 
 joyously. " I have seen it ever since I was a 
 small boy, but I have never spoken of it, be 
 cause I was afraid you would be angry. But 
 surely, father, you cannot help seeing it now. 
 It is so large and beautiful." 
 
 The father strained his eyes and stared for 
 some moments, earnestly, at the mountains 
 which rose black and threatening against the 
 glory of the sunset. 
 
 "There, there, father," ejaculated Ingolf, 
 pointing excitedly toward the western sky. 
 " Just follow the direction of my finger ! There 
 you see the beautiful brow ; it is that of a wo 
 man reclining. Sometimes she seems to be 
 dead ; sometimes only lightly asleep. To-night 
 she sleeps with her hands folded upon her 
 
164 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 breast; then follow the outline northward 
 the nose, slightly curved ; the chin, pure and 
 rounded ; the bosom ; the folded hands and 
 then a long stretch for the limbs ; and at last, 
 far away, the upturned feet. You cannot help 
 seeing it ; it is all so plain and so beautiful." 
 
 With a puzzled look old Guldbrand followed 
 the direction of the boy s finger, and evidently 
 made an honest effort to comprehend him. But 
 at last he gave an impatient toss of his head 
 and said : 
 
 " There is no face there, you lunatic ! And 
 there you stand and dare to make a fool of 
 your father. I will teach you to try that 
 again." 
 
 With this warning he gave the astonished 
 boy a box on the ear which felled him to the 
 ground. For the old man was strong, and his 
 wrath was not to be trifled with. 
 
 " Get up," he cried, as the boy made no mo 
 tion to rise. But the son did not stir. 
 
 " Get up, I say," roared the father a second 
 time, lifting the lad by the shoulders and 
 placing him upon his feet. But as he met his 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 165 
 
 eye, in which burned for a moment a wild pas 
 sion of hate, he dropped him suddenly and 
 walked into the house. He did not know how 
 grievously he had wounded him ; he did not 
 know that he had violated his holy of holies. 
 
 Ingolf did not weepi as he lay there in the 
 grass. "Wild thoughts wrestled in his mind. 
 An hour passed and the dew began to fall, but 
 he did not stir. The sun was hidden, but its 
 rays still slanted through the upper air and 
 spread a luminous shimmer downwards. Then 
 footsteps were heard, and Ingolf felt a warm 
 hand upon his head. He looked up and saw 
 the schoolmaster. 
 
 " It is damp to lie in the grass now," said he, 
 kindly. 
 
 " I don t care if it is," answered Ingolf. 
 
 " Things have gone wrong, I perceive," re 
 marked the schoolmaster with a smile which 
 was both insinuating and sympathetic. 
 
 " So they have," said the boy, raising him 
 self on his elbows. 
 
 " And I don t suppose I could help you ? " 
 
 " I don t think you could unless unless " 
 
166 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 the boy hesitated, gazing intently into the 
 schoolmaster s wrinkled and kindly face ; " un 
 less," he continued, " you could tell me whether 
 you have ever seen the mountain maiden." 
 
 " The mountain maiden ! " exclaimed the 
 schoolmaster with a startled look. "No, I 
 never saw her." 
 
 " I will show her to you," said the boy, seiz 
 ing him by the arm, and pointing with eager 
 gestures toward the chain of cliffs that dented 
 the western horizon. He saw himself, plainly, 
 the beautiful colossal maiden, outstretched in 
 her strong slumber, and his eyes hung ex 
 pectantly upon his teacher s face as if implor 
 ing him to see largely and clearly. Old Aslak, 
 for that was the schoolmaster s name, adjusted 
 his spectacles, three, four times carefully upon 
 his hooked nose, but his expression grew more 
 puzzled the longer he looked. 
 
 "You see nothing?" queried the boy with 
 tears in his voice ; " you cannot see the moun 
 tain maiden ? " 
 
 " No, my boy, no," said the schoolmaster ; 
 " there is nothing there to see except a jagged 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 167 
 
 chain of rocks ; and any one who says he sees 
 anything else is a fool or a loon. Have I not 
 for seven-and-twenty years taught the youth 
 of this valley their ABC, and the elements of 
 the Christian faith as they are expounded in 
 Dr. Martin Luther s little catechism ? There 
 is no one in the parish who knows more than 
 I do, except the parson ; and unless he sees 
 your mountain maiden, I will swear that she is 
 a phantasm of your own confused brain." 
 
II. 
 
 ABOUT a month later, when the wheat was 
 ripe, Ingolf was standing in the harvest field 
 which was near to the highway. He had 
 thrown his scythe upon the ground, and he 
 held in his hand a blue corn-flower and a sprig 
 of a weed which in Norway is called the wild 
 mustard. Just at that moment the parson 
 passed by. He was a stout and pompous man, 
 who preached the crucifying of the flesh, but 
 himself cared much for the good things of this 
 world. Eecognizing the handsome boy in the 
 field he stopped and called him by name. 
 
 " What is that you are gazing at so intently, 
 my lad ? " asked he in a voice that rang from 
 mountain to mountain. 
 
 Ingolf started and looked up blushing, as if 
 he had been caught doing something wrong. 
 
 " O, I have so many strange thoughts," he 
 murmured, in confusion. 
 
 " Well, let us hear your strange thoughts," 
 
 168 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 1G9 
 
 said the parson cheerily, stepping across the 
 ditch and walking close up to the boy. 
 
 " I was thinking I was wondering," stam 
 mered Ingolf, " what kind of weeds the tares 
 were which the enemy sowed in the wheat 
 field, while the husbandmen were asleep. I 
 have noticed that the corn-flower and the wild 
 mustard always grow in wheat fields, but I 
 have never noticed any other weed in great 
 numbers, except the poppy. Could it be pos 
 sible that these pretty flowers have been sown 
 by the enemy ? " 
 
 " The Scriptures say that the enemy sowed 
 tares," said the parson solemnly. 
 
 " But I don t know what tares are ; I sup 
 posed it meant a weed." 
 
 The parson stood for a moment pondering ; 
 he had preached at least twenty times on the 
 parable of the tares among the wheat, but it had 
 never occurred to him to associate any plant of 
 definite form and color with the Biblical weed. 
 
 " You should not inquire into those things 
 which the Lord has hidden from us," he re 
 marked, gravely. 
 
170 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 " But why should the Lord hide from us so 
 many things which it would benefit us to 
 know ? " asked the boy, innocently. 
 
 " Child, child ! " exclaimed the clergyman, 
 " the enemy has been sowing his tares in your 
 own mind. These wicked thoughts, this spirit 
 of self-righteousness, this questioning the wis 
 dom of God and of God-given authorities, 
 these are the most dangerous tares that flour 
 ish in the fields of youthful minds at the pres 
 ent day. Therefore, if you would have His 
 good wheat thrive and grow fertile in your 
 soul, cease questioning, and believe." 
 
 The boy was completely overawed. He 
 dropped the flowers reluctantly and seized the 
 scythe. 
 
 " That is right," cried the parson ; " work 
 and pray that ye fall not into temptation. In 
 the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat thy bread. 
 "Work is the right antidote against dangerous 
 thoughts." 
 
 He turned on his heel and was about to 
 continue his walk when his eyes fell upon the 
 pretty corn-flowers. With much difficulty he 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 171 
 
 stooped and began to pick them up. Their 
 vivid color and singular shape interested him. 
 " These do not grow in Palestine," he mut 
 tered, as if speaking to himself; "and the 
 tares certainly must have been an Asiatic 
 weed." 
 
 Ingolf paused in his work and listened again 
 eagerly. He had a bright and easily impressi 
 ble mind, in which joy and pain followed each 
 other in quick succession. At the pastor s 
 words his face lighted up with pleasure. 
 
 " What is it now which excites you ? " quer 
 ied the minister, somewhat impatiently. 
 
 " Oh, it pleased me to know," answered the 
 boy, half bashfully, " that the Lord is not 
 stern enough to throw these bright flowers 
 into the fire on the last day." 
 
 " You foolish boy, you foolish boy," said the 
 parson in a gentler mood, patting him softly 
 on the shoulder. " The Lord is terrible only 
 to sinners and idlers who speculate instead of 
 following his command to Adam, which I have 
 just quoted to you. It is those who are meant 
 by the tares which are to be cast into the fire." 
 
172 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 This friendly didactic tone was so encour 
 aging that the desire arose in Ingolf s mind to 
 submit to the pastor s decision the one ever- 
 present thought which haunted him. If the 
 pastor, who was the wisest man in the parish, 
 could not see the mountain maiden, then it 
 was evident that the schoolmaster was right, 
 that the large, placid image was but a delusion 
 of his disordered brain. But as he looked 
 toward the mountains and saw the beautiful 
 genius of his life outstretched in majestic re 
 pose, he prayed earnestly that the Lord would 
 open the pastor s eyes, so that he might be 
 able to see the mountain maiden. His heart 
 beat violently, as he approached the minister 
 with his eyes fixed imploringly upon his face, 
 and the momentous question trembled upon 
 his lips. 
 
 "Mr. Pastor," he began but his voice 
 shook and the tears nearly choked him " Mr. 
 Pastor, can you see the mountain maiden ? " 
 
 "The mountain maiden?" cried the pastor 
 in visible alarm. 
 
 " Yes ; the great stone face now looming 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 173 
 
 against the sunset and the beautiful bosom 
 and the folded hands?" 
 
 The tears now burst forth and he flung him 
 self down in the stubble, crying with a piteous 
 voice : " Oh, you cannot see her, you cannot 
 see her ? " 
 
 " The boy is mad," grumbled the pastor, as 
 he walked back to the highway ; " I certainly 
 must speak to his father." 
 
III. 
 
 THEEE days passed during which Ingolf 
 never once looked toward the mountain mai 
 den. When the longing drew him he turned 
 his head resolutely away and whistled wildly 
 in order to divert his thoughts. The dread of 
 insanity stood constantly at his mind s door 
 and knocked unceasingly, demanding admit 
 tance. But he fought it off with the strength 
 of despair, and wept and prayed with a frantic 
 energy. And yet the very moment his soul 
 rebounded into its natural attitude he saw in 
 spirit the colossal maiden sleeping under the 
 spacious sky. No force of prayer or tears 
 could obliterate her image from his mind : 
 even though he might persuade himself that 
 she had no existence, since so wise and pious 
 a man as the parson had failed to see her, his 
 memory still protested against the enforced 
 
 belief. 
 
 174 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 175 
 
 In the heat of his conflict Ingolf had sought 
 refuge in the birch grove, about a mile from 
 the house. There he sat upon a large moss- 
 grown stone and saw the sunshine quiver in 
 the air, and heard the whirring of the crickets 
 in the grass. A terrible desire had taken pos 
 session of him to look but once more west 
 ward only once more and exchange a fare 
 well greeting with the mountain maiden. The 
 desire pursued him, and he had to press his 
 face down into the moss in order to resist it. 
 It seemed to him a temptation of the evil one, 
 and the beautiful stone maiden became an im 
 age of dread, associated in some inexplicable 
 manner with evil powers which strove to lead 
 him away from God. But, for all that, she 
 was no less tempting, no less beautiful. With 
 a wild, unthinking energy, only to keep the 
 tempter at bay, he repeated "Our Father," 
 and his young voice sounded strangely amid 
 the bird song and the whisper of the wind in 
 the tree-tops; but gradually the voice grew 
 fainter, and the whisper of the wind grew into 
 a soft, unceasing song, and the birds and the 
 
176 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 crickets paused to listen. There was a great 
 rushing sound under the heavens, and the 
 mountain maiden opened her eyes and rose, 
 large and beautiful, looming with her head and 
 her ample shoulders into the clear, sun-teem 
 ing sky. Ingolf forgot to pray, and gave a 
 loud, joyous shout which echoed from moun 
 tain to mountain. And he saw her walking 
 grandly over the earth, and the tranquil maj 
 esty of her face was inconceivable. In her 
 hands, which he now for the first time saw un 
 folded, she held a common stone, a clod of 
 earth, a bunch of fresh grass, and a snake, 
 upon whose coiled body shone in golden let 
 ters the legend, " The knowledge of good and 
 evil." She came nearer and nearer, and stooped 
 down over the boy and lifted him in her large 
 arms until his vision soared through the bound 
 less space, and he breathed an air that was in- 
 toxicatingly sweet and pure. His whole being 
 seemed to be throbbing with joy ; he had never 
 been so happy in all his life. She bore him 
 toward a distant mountain and placed him 
 upon its pinnacle, whence his vision had a full 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 177 
 
 sweep of the earth and the sky. There she 
 gave him the handful of earth, the stone, the 
 blades of grass and the snake, saying, " Sing 
 of these." But when she turned her back, and 
 was about to move away, he clung to her arm, 
 crying, "Oh, stay with me!" She shook her 
 head, and answered, "I shall return." 
 
 A harsh scream close to his ear brought him 
 to his feet. He was still in the birch grove, 
 and the crickets were singing about him ; but 
 a hawk was sitting upon a low bough of the 
 birch under which he had been lying, and the 
 birds were silent. He stared about him with 
 dazed eyes. He did not know whether he had 
 been awake or dreaming. 
 
 In the joy of this memory the days passed 
 rapidly, and the summer drew toward its end. 
 The English and American tourists who 
 climbed the mountains and forded the seething 
 rivers during the warm months began to turn 
 their flight, with the other birds of passage, 
 southward. Then, as the vision faded, and the 
 doubts reasserted themselves, the old sorrow 
 
 returned. 
 12 
 
178 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 It was during one of the long, sunny days of 
 the late autumn that a beautiful lady came to 
 the farm and asked if she could get a change 
 of horses. Her carriage, too, was slightly out 
 of gear and needed mending. Ingolf saw her 
 standing in the middle of the lawn before the 
 house, and he gave a great cry and flung him 
 self at her feet. She stooped down over him 
 and asked him in a kindly voice what ailed 
 him ; but he only stared with a wild fascina 
 tion at her beautiful face and gave no an 
 swer. 
 
 " There is something strange in this," she 
 said, smiling, " something which I do not 
 understand. Do I remind you of any one who 
 is dear to you ? " 
 
 Then he suddenly found his voice, and an 
 swered, " You are the mountain maiden who 
 promised to return to me." 
 
 " The mountain maiden ? " she repeated with 
 a sweet, musical laugh. " Who is that ? " 
 
 " Look ! " he said, pointing with happy con 
 fidence toward the western mountain chain, 
 " do you see the beautiful face gazing against 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 179 
 
 the sky, the folded hands, the large bosom, 
 and the feet? It is yourself; it is your 
 face." 
 
 She gazed for a moment wonderingly, and 
 her eyes grew grave, almost solemn. 
 
 " You are right," she said ; " I see your 
 mountain maiden ; I think I can see the re 
 semblance. You are a strange boy, but I like 
 you. Tell me something about yourself." 
 
 He seated himself on the grass, and, while 
 she waited, sitting under the drooping birch- 
 tree, he told her the story of the mountain 
 maiden. 
 
 " Ah ! " she exclaimed, running her fingers 
 caressingly through his hair, " you are a poet. 
 You see what commonplace mortals cannot 
 see." 
 
 " Yes," he said, mournfully, " I know I am 
 something strange." 
 
 " And we will make you something great," 
 she said, joyously. "Your trust in the moun 
 tain maiden shall not deceive you. Come with 
 me to the city, and I will give you teachers 
 and show you the great world. I ll ask your 
 
180 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 father to lend you to me for twelve years. 
 Will you come?" 
 
 " I will follow you wherever you take me," 
 he answered, while a strange radiance spread 
 over his countenance. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE twelve years passed, and a great poet 
 appeared in the North a poet who sang of 
 the grand creation s chain; of the earth and 
 her teeming life ; of the vast processes of her 
 growth ; of the reign of law and order and pro 
 gress. And he sang, not like the ancient de- 
 claimers, who saw but the surface of things, 
 but as one having deep knowledge as well as 
 power. Some called him a great man of sci 
 ence, others called him a mighty poet; but 
 others again called him the enemy of mankind, 
 the ruthless iconoclast, the Antichrist concern 
 ing whom John had prophesied in the Apoca 
 lypse. But the nation listened to him, and the 
 lovers of liberty over the whole world heard 
 his voice. 
 
 It was on the very day when the twelfth 
 year was at an end that Ingolf and his foster- 
 mother arrived in the valley ; the peasants met 
 them with music and speeches at the railroad 
 
 181 
 
182 THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 
 
 station, and they drove in state to the old 
 homestead where the poet s father, the pastor 
 and the schoolmaster stood ready to receive 
 them. Old Guldbrand was very feeble, and 
 could not drive to the station. 
 
 "And do you remember twelve years ago," 
 said the schoolmaster, when the preliminary 
 greetings were over, " how you used to talk to 
 me about the mountain maiden?" 
 
 "Whom you could not see," said Ingolf, 
 laughing. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir," cried the school 
 master, apparently much offended ; " I saw the 
 mountain image as plainly as I do you at this 
 moment. Why, do you suppose I am blind ? " 
 
 " Why, certainly, it is as plain as day," ejac 
 ulated the pastor, turning his rubicund face to 
 ward the west and tracing the outline of the 
 imposing figure with his forefinger. " I always 
 wondered at nature s consistency in having 
 conformed so accurately to the human form." 
 
 "And you, too, father; do you see it?" asked 
 Ingolf in amazement. 
 
 "What do you take me for, son?" asked the 
 
THE MOUNTAIN S FACE. 183 
 
 old man with an incredulous mien ; " why, I 
 never remember the time when the thing wasn t 
 perfectly plain to me. You don t suppose I 
 came into the world blind, like a puppy? " 
 
 Ingolf was too happy to make a bitter reply ; 
 and yet bitter memories rose in his mind. But 
 his foster-mother, divining his thought, drew 
 him gently aside, and said : 
 
 "It is your glory that these men imagine 
 they have always seen. The truth is no man s 
 property, not even his who first sees it." 
 
 " You are right, as always," said Ingolf, kiss 
 ing his foster-mother s brow. And they turned 
 both, as with one accord, toward the west, 
 where the mountain maiden lay, tracing her 
 grand outline against the sunset. 
 
A DAISTGEEOUS VIRTUE. 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 THERE was a great commotion down on the 
 beach. Eight large boats, heavily freighted 
 with boxes and chests, were lying at the point 
 of the pier. The oarsmen were already in 
 their places, lifting their dripping oars, and 
 waiting for the last emigrants to embark. Out 
 in the middle of the fiord the steam-boat was 
 puffing and rumbling and shrieking, and now 
 and then sending clouds and rings of steam up 
 against the spotless blue sky. The mountains, 
 black and solid at the base, rose through a hun 
 dred wondrous gradations of color and light 
 ness to a height where their granite outlines 
 seemed to dissolve into the pale-green, sun- 
 steeped ether. Precipitate brooklets plunged 
 down their sides, and traced their white paths 
 
 187 
 
188 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 of foam against the dark stone ; but they 
 seemed so infinitely remote, and their voices 
 were lost in the vast calm which rested upon 
 earth and sky. God s hand was invisibly out 
 stretched in benediction over the pure and per 
 fect day. The fiord, reflecting in its placid 
 mirror the cool depths of the heavens, shut in 
 on all sides by the gigantic mountain peaks, 
 shivered now and then into trembling undu 
 lations whenever a sea-bird grazed its surface, 
 and broke in pleasant, rhythmic ripples over 
 the white sand. 
 
 At last all the boats were filled with emi 
 grants. Only one belated straggler was still 
 standing on the steps leading down to the wat 
 er, gazing with tear-filled eyes into the face 
 of a young woman, whose hands were tightly 
 clasped in his own. He was a tall, blonde man 
 of athletic build, with a frank, sun-burned 
 face, and a pair of deep-set, serious blue eyes. 
 There was an expression of determination, 
 perhaps of obstinacy, in his roughly hewn fea 
 tures, and yet there was something sweet and 
 tender lurking somewhere under the rugged 
 
A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 189 
 
 surface, softening the harsh effect of nature s 
 hasty workmanship. 
 
 The young woman, too, was tall and fair, 
 and of fine proportions; her face was round 
 and dimpled, and had that kind of rudimen 
 tary beauty which is so frequent among the 
 Norse peasantry. She had a baby of about five 
 months old strapped over her back, and gazed 
 every now and then over her shoulder, when 
 ever the pudgy little hands in their aimless 
 gesticulations touched her ears or cheeks. 
 
 " You will be sure to come for me next year, 
 Anders," she said, bursting into a fresh fit of 
 weeping. " It will be so hard for me to be left 
 here all alone, and you wandering through the 
 world without me. You know you never were 
 a good hand at taking care of yourself, Anders. 
 And your clothes will need mending, too. Oh, 
 dear me, what will you do, Anders, without 
 me?" 
 
 " It will be hard for me to get along without 
 you, Gunhild," he answered, sadly. "But what 
 should I do with you and the baby, as long as 
 I have no house and home ? The first year in 
 
190 A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 
 
 America is uncommonly hard, they tell me, and 
 I would rather spare you, Gunhild, and take 
 you into a warm, snug home, where you and 
 the baby will find peace and comfort. In the 
 meanwhile, Thorkel has promised to take care 
 of you for a year, and if I do not come myself 
 for you, there will be many friends going who 
 will protect you from harm during the voyage." 
 
 "And your fifteen hundred dollars, Anders 
 don t you tell anybody that you have got it on 
 your person. They might kill you, and then 
 I should never see you again, and the baby 
 would have no father any more. And don t 
 you forget that I put your clean linen on the 
 top in your chest, and your Sunday clothes in 
 the right corner, directly under the hymn-book 
 and the fine shirts." 
 
 " No, no, I shall forget nothing. And now, 
 God bless you, wife. Let me kiss the baby. 
 Take good care of him, and be sure you teach 
 him to say father. : 
 
 The blonde emigrant here stooped and rub 
 bed his cheek against that of the diminutive 
 mummy which was fighting in the air and coo- 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 191 
 
 ing contentedly on its mother s back. " The 
 little rascal ! " said the father, with a faint 
 smile. " He doesn t know that his father is to 
 leave him for so long a time. Give me your 
 hand, baby -dear," he continued, addressing 
 himself to the infant, " and take good care of 
 your mother while I am gone." 
 
 He turned resolutely about and descended 
 the stairs ; but, on the last step, he lingered, 
 turned his head once more, and leaped up on 
 the pier. They made a fine group, those two, 
 clasping each other s hands, with the sunlit 
 air about them, the glittering fiord beneath 
 them, and the white sea-gulls circling above 
 them. 
 
 The steamer gave three long shrieks, the 
 oarsmen shouted, and the sea-birds, as if to in 
 crease the general commotion, screamed wildly 
 as they rose from the water and drifted in 
 snowy masses through the clear air. The be 
 lated emigrant stumbled down the steps and 
 flung himself into the stern of the last boat. 
 
n. 
 
 ANDERS GUDMUNDSON EUSTAD was the young 
 est son of a well-to-do peasant in Hardanger, 
 on the western coast of Norway. His father, 
 who, during his life-time, had been a magnate 
 in the parish, had left a large farm to be di 
 vided among his three sons ; and the sons had 
 scrupulously carried out his last instructions 
 regarding the property, and had striven brave 
 ly to maintain themselves and their families on 
 their divided patrimony; but it .was a hard 
 struggle, and experience taught them daily that 
 without any capital to invest in houses and im 
 provements, their lives would be a continual 
 hand-to-hand battle with poverty. "What was 
 worse, they could no longer hope to assert the 
 traditional influence of their family in paro 
 chial affairs, and they foresaw the time when 
 their name would no longer be as weighty and 
 as honored as it had been in ages past. The 
 three brothers, therefore, held a family council 
 
 192 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 193 
 
 in order to determine what measures should 
 be taken to uphold the honor and authority of 
 their ancient name. They were all three rig 
 idly honest, upright, and law-abiding men, and 
 one was as well qualified as another to wield 
 the influence which had belonged to each gen 
 eration of their race as by ancient right. They 
 were, moreover, men of a strongly moral bias- 
 grave, thoughtful, and tenacious of their pur 
 pose when once they had shaped their course 
 of action. When the day for the family coun 
 cil arrived, each had, therefore, pondered out 
 his own solution of the all-important problem, 
 which he clung to with unwavering energy, 
 and it was only after a long and hard-fought 
 competition in generosity that Anders s plan 
 prevailed, and his eldest brother, Thorkel, as 
 the legitimate representative of the family, de 
 termined to accept his self-sacrifice in the 
 name of his race. It was only just and fair, 
 Anders argued, that when a younger brother, 
 by his mere existence, interfered with the best 
 interests of the family, he should seek for him 
 self a new sphere of activity, and remove to 
 13 
 
194 A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 
 
 fresh fields of labor. By a continual subdi 
 vision of the land between the descendants of 
 each new generation, the mightiest race would 
 gradually degenerate into mere tenants and 
 day-laborers, and the influence built up by 
 prudent and laborious ancestors would be 
 squandered and uselessly dissipated by short 
 sighted and improvident descendants. In order 
 not to cripple his eldest brother in his efforts 
 to assert his influence and independence, An 
 ders volunteered to accept a mere nominal 
 sum one thousand dollars as a compensa 
 tion for his share in the landed inheritance, 
 and, with this, and the five hundred more 
 which belonged to his wife, he hoped- to found 
 a new home in America, and to establish for 
 himself an honored and influential name in the 
 great western hemisphere. This was no hasty 
 conclusion which he uttered on the spur of the 
 moment. For two years past he had studied 
 the English language, the pronunciation of 
 which he had learned from an English lord 
 whose guide he had been on his hunting and 
 fishing expeditions for several summers. 
 
A DANGEKOUS VIKTUE. 195 
 
 The second son, Bjorn, not wishing to be 
 outdone in generosity by his younger brother, 
 accepted a similar compromise, and, having a 
 turn for trade, resolved to settle in one of the 
 cities on the sea-coast as a lumber-dealer. It 
 was agreed, however, that Anders s wife and 
 child should remain at the old homestead until 
 he should have succeeded in making the prop 
 er arrangements for their reception in his new 
 home beyond the sea. 
 
 It was the middle of April, 186-, when An 
 ders landed at Castle Garden. His fifteen hun 
 dred dollars he had sewed up securely in a 
 leathern belt, which he wore about his waist, 
 next to the skin. Nevertheless, the purser on 
 the steamboat divined that he carried a large 
 sum of money on his person, and, beckoning 
 him aside, warned him, in a friendly whisper, 
 against the dangers to which an immigrant ex 
 posed himself by being his own banker. He 
 begged him to hasten to deposit his money in 
 a safe bank, where he could draw it at will, and 
 where, moreover, he would get interest on that 
 part of it which he might not immediately use. 
 
196 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 The Norseman, who had not let the least hint 
 fall concerning his wealth, was not a little 
 alarmed at the purser s power of divination, 
 and, although saying nothing, resolved on the 
 spot to follow his advice. He dared consult no 
 one, having a natural distrust of foreigners, 
 and believing, as most Norsemen do, that the 
 principal occupation of Americans consists in 
 outwitting the more innocent and unsophisti 
 cated nations of the earth. Having intrusted 
 his luggage to the agent of the steamship 
 company, he launched forth boldly, with the 
 intention of taking a promenade through the 
 city, and obtaining a preliminary survey of it 
 before selecting a temporary place of lodgings ; 
 but hardly had he emerged from the gate of 
 Castle Garden, before he was hailed by a dozen 
 frantic men, some of whom recommended ob 
 scure hotels, with much feverish eloquence, 
 while others greeted him as an old, long-lost 
 friend, and insisted upon overwhelming him with 
 affectionate attentions. To our Norseman, who 
 had always looked upon himself and been look 
 ed upon by others as a man of shrewdness and 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 197 
 
 authority, it was very humiliating to be selected 
 as an easy prey by these importunate rogues. 
 He had always felt himself firm and free, vith 
 his foot planted on his native rock, and it gave 
 him, in this moment, an unpleasant shock to be 
 placed at a disadvantage by creatures of an in 
 ferior species. To them, he reflected hurriedly, 
 his ancient name was but an unmeaning, bar 
 baric sound, and it was folly to attempt to as 
 sert an authority which no one recognized ; he 
 therefore extricated himself as best he could 
 from the crowd, being conscious of a vague un 
 easiness and annoyance, and dreading to use 
 his superior strength lest he might offend 
 against the unknown laws of this enigmatical 
 country. The noise about him grew more and 
 more deafening. To his ears, accustomed only 
 to the murmur of the sea and the scream of the 
 eagle in the vast solitudes, this incessant tramp 
 of feet, the harsh rattle of wheels upon the 
 stone pavements, and the shouts of men in 
 strange tongues, were so utterly bewildering 
 that he had frequently to pause to collect his 
 senses, and his reason seemed to be wandering 
 
198 A DANGEKOUS VIETUE. 
 
 beyond his control. His firm confidence in 
 himself as a normal and well-regulated human 
 being began, for the first time in his life, to 
 desert him. His Norse costume, which he had 
 worn since the days of his childhood, and the 
 propriety of which he had never thought of 
 questioning, now suddenly appeared queer 
 and outlandish ; and the half-curious, half-con 
 temptuous glances which he received from the 
 men and women who hurried past him, made 
 him alternately burn and shiver, until he only 
 longed to hide himself in some dark and quiet 
 place where no human eye could reach him. 
 He trembled at the thought that perhaps these 
 strange people, with their keen unsympathetic 
 eyes, had, like the purser on the ship, discov 
 ered that he carried a large sum of money in 
 his belt, and were only watching their oppor 
 tunity to take it away from him. The weight 
 of the gold eagles seemed to be dragging him 
 down; his knees shook under him, and his 
 blood throbbed in his ears and temples until 
 he feared to take another step, lest he should 
 fall to the ground and be trampled down by the 
 
A DANGEEOUS VIRTUE. 199 
 
 unfeeling multitude that were pressing about 
 him on all sides. At this moment, just as his 
 strength was on the point of failing him, his 
 eyes fell, as if by chance, upon a huge stone 
 building, upon the front of which was written, 
 in large, gilt letters, "Immigrants Savings 
 Bank and Trust Company." The word "im 
 migrant" first caught his glance, and by means 
 of the pocket-dictionary which he carried with 
 him he easily made out the meaning of the rest. 
 This was evidently a hint of Providence. An 
 Immigrants Savings Bank and Trust Com 
 pany ! The latter half of the title, especially, 
 appealed to him ; it had such an assuring sound 
 a Trust Company ! The very name inspired 
 confidence. It was exactly the kind of institu 
 tion which he wanted. 
 
 The weary and bewildered Norseman 
 straightened himself up ; he took off his cap 
 and ran his hand through his blonde hair. The 
 cool air blew against his throbbing forehead, 
 and he drew a full, long breath, and reflected 
 that, after all, the God of the Norseman could 
 see him even in this remote and tumultuous 
 
200 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 world, and would not desert him. So he whis 
 pered a snatch of an old hymn, and hastened 
 across the street toward the huge granite edi 
 fice, which he stopped once more to admire. 
 Surely here was something solid and tangible ; 
 no flimsy ornaments, no whimsical striving for 
 originality in design ; everywhere square blocks 
 of stone, with an air of stability and grave de 
 corum about them which left no room for 
 doubt as to the civic weight and responsibility 
 of the men who had erected them. And, as if to 
 dispel the last shadow of a misgiving that might 
 still be lingering in the depositor s mind, they 
 had had their names engraved in neat gilt let 
 ters upon the granite bases of the pillars which 
 supported the lofty, round-arched portico of 
 the entrance to the bank. The simple Norse 
 man took his cap clean off, and held it respect 
 fully in his hand, while he contemplated the 
 ponderous respectability of these euphonious 
 syllables. " Hon. Randolph Melville, sr., Presi 
 dent " ! Who would deny that there was some 
 thing fine and alluring in the very sound of 
 that name ? Mr. Randolph Melville was Hon- 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 201 
 
 orable that was a matter of course to tlio 
 immigrant s mind ; for Lie knew not the cheap 
 ness of that frequently so ironical title in the 
 United States, nor did he know the processes 
 by which it is acquired. It seemed more sig 
 nificant to him that Mr. Kandolph Melville 
 was the senior of that name, and he imme 
 diately pictured to himself the honorable bank 
 president as a white-haired patriarch, sur 
 rounded by an admiring and affectionate fami 
 ly, who looked to him for counsel and guidance. 
 "With this pleasing picture hovering before his 
 mind, he resolutely entered the bank and 
 placed his cap upon the snow-white marble 
 counter. Behind the little windows half a 
 dozen clerks, with rigidly neutral countenances, 
 were scribbling away busily, and hardly deigned 
 to notice the rustic, who, with the air of a hum 
 ble petitioner, was wandering from one window 
 to another, and endeavoring to attract their 
 distinguished attention. Finally, a very ele 
 gantly attired little man, with an exquisite 
 black mustache, inclined his head slightly to 
 wards an opening which bore the inscription, 
 
202 A DANGEKOUS VIRTUE. 
 
 " Receiving Teller," and, without responding to 
 the Norseman s respectful greeting, asked him, 
 in a gruff voice, what he wanted. 
 
 "I have fifteen hundred dollars," faltered 
 Anders, in indifferent English, "and I should 
 like to deposit it here for some months, until I 
 shall need it." 
 
 The teller, instead of answering, bent once 
 more over his books, as if he had heard noth 
 ing. 
 
 " I have fifteen hundred dollars " began 
 the immigrant once more ; but the teller scrib 
 bled away for dear life, and only stopped oc 
 casionally to wipe his forehead with a white 
 handkerchief. 
 
 At this moment a tall, majestic-looking man, 
 with iron-gray hair and a handsome, clean 
 shaven face, entered from an inner room and 
 approached the counter. 
 
 " What does this man want ?" he said, con 
 fronting the clerk with a gaze of withering 
 severity. 
 
 " He wants to make a deposit, sir," answered 
 the clerk. 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 203 
 
 " What is your name, my good fellow ? " 
 asked the majestic man, in a tone of benign 
 condescension. 
 
 " Anders Gudmundson Rustad," replied the 
 Norseman, cheerfully. He felt sure that this 
 was the Hon. Randolph Melville, sr., and he 
 reflected with satisfaction that his actual ap 
 pearance differed but slightly from the imagin 
 ary portrait of him which he had constructed 
 at the sight of his name. 
 
 "And what is the amount you wish to de 
 posit ? " inquired Mr. Melville, seizing a small 
 pasteboard book from a pile which was neatly 
 stacked under the counter. 
 
 " Fifteen hundred dollars. It is all I possess 
 in this world my own inheritance and that of 
 my wife." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I understand," said the" banker, 
 impatiently. "Hand it here, please." 
 
 The immigrant unbuttoned his red waistcoat, 
 unbuckled the heavy leathern belt, and cut the 
 seam open at one end with his knife. He 
 then counted out the large, shining gold pieces 
 upon the counter, whereupon Hon. Randolph 
 
204 A DANGEKOUS VIETUE. 
 
 Melville pushed them with an indifferent, busi 
 ness-like air into an open drawer, and handed 
 the depositor the little book through the win 
 dow. 
 
 " We pay five per cent," he said, " and you 
 can draw at pleasure." 
 
 "But," stammered the Norseman, who was 
 gazing with a bewildered expression into his 
 book, " I have only given you fifteen hundred, 
 and here you have put down twenty-one hun 
 dred." 
 
 "Yes, gold is at a premium of forty per 
 cent." 
 
 And Mr. Melville, with the same severe and 
 majestic air, turned his back on his rustic in 
 terlocutor, and reentered his private office. 
 There were a dozen questions which Anders 
 would have liked to ask regarding the best 
 manner of drawing his money, etc., but he 
 feared to trouble further the great man or his 
 unresponsive clerks, and therefore betook him 
 self away with a helpless mien and slow, reluc 
 tant steps. This world was a very puzzling affair 
 after all, he reflected, and as for asserting the 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 205 
 
 influence of the Rustad family and its Norse 
 traditions in this chaotic whirlpool of conflict 
 ing interests, why, that was a hopeless under 
 taking. 
 
III. 
 
 , ANDEKS EUSTAD, fearing to trust himself to 
 the guidance of the hotel runners, returned 
 that night to Castle Garden, where he slept on 
 the floor of one of the galleries, with his jacket 
 
 * M 
 
 rolled up under his head for a pillow. Bound 
 about him, men and women in all sorts of cu 
 rious costumes lay stretched out in sleep on 
 boxes and trunks, and their heavy, regular 
 breathing rose in a doleful chorus under the 
 wide rotunda, and attuned his mind to melan 
 choly reflections. He was half inclined to re 
 pent of the generous resolve by which he had 
 voluntarily exiled himself from the ancient 
 home of his race, and plunged rashly into a 
 complex foreign world which he was ill quali 
 fied to cope with. And yet he argued to him 
 self, it was but an act of justice, and not of 
 generosity. If his brother had been in his 
 place, would he not have done likewise ? Sure 
 ly he would have acted in the same spirit. 
 
 206 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 207 
 
 Then the thought came to him of his beautiful 
 fair-haired wife, who was longing to share his 
 fate in this new land, and of his little boy, who 
 would grow up, perhaps, to be a powerful man, 
 and would conquer wealth and influence here 
 where there was yet elbow-room for every free 
 and energetic spirit. He built in imagination, 
 first, a snug little cabin, then a stately, spacious 
 mansion upon the western prairie, and he saw 
 his wife entering it for the first time, her fair 
 face beaming with gratitude and pleased sur 
 prise. Happy visions floated before his closed 
 eyes, and pursued him into that delightful 
 state of semi-consciousness which precedes the 
 dreamless slumber. 
 
 The next morning, Anders resolved to find 
 the railroad depot and to start on his west 
 ward journey. He felt hopeful and strong, and 
 was half ashamed of the weakness which he 
 had shown the day before. The noise was 
 now positively exhilarating ; he had a sensa 
 tion of being part of it, and it buoyed him up 
 with joyous excitement. The pulse of the 
 world was beating vigorously, and its strong 
 
208 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 life-currents were beginning to circulate 
 through, his own being. The tall, blank-look 
 ing edifices from which men kept running out 
 and in, like bees at the mouth of a hive, 
 looked far less forbidding than the day before ; 
 their unindividualized severity had, at all 
 events, acquired the dignity of a useful pur 
 pose. The sunlight was pouring in a mild, 
 steady stream into the broad thoroughfare ; 
 the chimes of Trinity were ringing merrily 
 through the clear air ; and the men who were 
 every moment alighting from the crowded om 
 nibuses, with the morning papers in their 
 hands, had an air of self-confidence and suc 
 cess which was almost inspiring. All that a 
 sensible and industrious Norseman required, 
 in order to conquer a place for himself in this 
 bright and busy land, was a little spiritual ac 
 climatization, and that the years would imper 
 ceptibly supply without much conscious effort. 
 I am not sure that Anders s meditations on 
 this subject were clearly formulated in the 
 above phrases, but he had a cheerful sense 
 that his foreignness was gradually wearing 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 209 
 
 away, and that within a short time he would 
 be able to engage in the struggle for existence 
 on equal terms with his fellow-competitors. 
 
 While pursuing these pleasant fancies, An 
 ders had reached the corner of the street 
 where the bank reared its stately facade 
 against the blue sky. A dense crowd of ex 
 cited people, mostly laborers in fustian and 
 shabbily attired women, were gathered about 
 its closed doors, and four policemen were 
 striving in vain to clear the sidewalk and to 
 open a passage for the constantly growing 
 throng of pedestrians. Half a dozen horses, 
 harnessed to enormous drays, were plunging 
 and rearing in the middle of the street, and 
 the drivers were swearing and cracking their 
 whips, while freshly arriving vehicles, with 
 difficulty detained by the policemen, every 
 moment increased the tumult and confusion. 
 Our Norseman, to whom this was a novel, and, 
 on the whole, an entertaining spectacle, rush 
 ed forward to assist in disengaging the inter 
 locked wheels, and by two vigorous pulls suc 
 ceeded in setting one of the drays at liberty. 
 14 
 
210 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 The driver, without stopping to thank him, 
 whipped up his horses and drove off at a rapid 
 trot ; the other teams followed, and within a 
 minute the traffic of the street had resumed 
 its usual noisy regularity. Anders, who had 
 hardly had time to wonder at the presence of 
 the crowd, and still less at its fierce excite 
 ment, supposing both to be normal phenomena 
 of American life, now respectfully approached 
 a policeman and asked him, in his broken 
 English, if any calamity had happened, and 
 why the people appeared so agitated. 
 
 "The bank is busted," replied the officer, 
 laconically. 
 
 "Busted?" asked the Norseman, with a 
 vague sense of alarm ; for the word " busted " 
 did not exist in his vocabulary. 
 
 " Yes ; gone up the spout, * explained the 
 officer, with a gruff laugh. " Gone where the 
 woodbine twineth." 
 
 The immigrant was utterly mystified ; by a 
 violent effort he repelled the one rational ex 
 planation of the scene, and, clinging to a futile 
 hope, hauled out his friend 3 the dictionary. 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 211 
 
 But neither the definition of " spout " nor of 
 " woodbine " suggested the remotest clue to 
 the enigma. Looking up, he saw a lean, mid 
 dle-aged woman shaking her clenched fist in 
 helpless rage against the broad stone facade 
 of the building, which in its granite security 
 seemed to smile defiance down upon her. An 
 gry men were rushing up the front steps and 
 hammering with their heels and elbows against 
 the solid oak doors, while others were threat 
 ening the policemen, who were making a faint 
 show of restraining them from further vio 
 lence. Anders stood and gazed and gazed in 
 numb, shivering silence. He was dimly aware 
 that a great calamity had happened, and that 
 it had happened to him ; but the shock had 
 paralyzed his thoughts, and his mind seemed 
 a cold vacuum. He felt a dull throbbing in 
 his head and a strange numbness in his limbs. 
 He heard the screams and curses around him 
 as one hears voices in a dream ; the sunlight 
 poured down upon him, but it was no longer 
 the same sunlight he had rejoiced in but a few 
 moments ago ; it was rather like something white 
 
212 A DANGEKOUS VIRTUE. 
 
 and heavy a bright and dense veil, which fell 
 with a positive weight upon his eyes. The 
 crowd now filled the whole street ; two or 
 three stones were flung against the windows of 
 the bank ; then some one climbed up on the 
 front steps and gesticulated wildly, while ap 
 pearing to speak, though no one appeared to 
 hear what he said. Suddenly, in the midst of 
 all this tumult, Anders felt himself hurried 
 away by an impulse which he was powerless 
 to resist. He heard a rhythmic tramp of feet, 
 the report of one or two pistols, and saw 
 the multitude scattering in precipitate haste 
 through the neighboring streets. 
 
 When he had regained control of his senses, 
 he found himself sitting on a bench in the 
 square in front of the City Hall. A brooding 
 calm had come over him, and he saw with 
 painful vividness the consequences of the ca 
 lamity which had overtaken him. Where were 
 now the home on the prairie, his son s future, 
 and his wife s joyous surprise ? A sense of in 
 jury, mingled as yet with sorrow for those that 
 were dear to him, kept burrowing more and 
 
A DANGEROUS VIKTUE. 213 
 
 more deeply into his soul ; and as he recalled 
 the scenes of yesterday the majestic indiffer 
 ence of the thief and his own humility keen 
 er pangs awoke within him, and he sprang up 
 and shook his clenched fists against the hea 
 vens. If there was a righteous God sitting 
 there above, how, then, could such a mon 
 strous wrong be possible ? And, if he was 
 deaf to the cries of the oppressed, was it not 
 then the duty of the wronged man to take the 
 judgment into his own hands, and to help 
 himself to justice? The justice of this world 
 was for the great, not for the small. How 
 could he now, without money or influence, 
 without friends or connections, obtain the 
 means to prosecute before a court of law the 
 robber who had stolen his happiness, his 
 future, and his very faith in God away from 
 him ? He remembered well that the venerable 
 preacher at home promised the righting of all 
 wrongs in the hereafter, and that arrangement 
 had always, up to the present moment, seemed 
 in a general way quite satisfactory. He had 
 never seen any reason why the injured man 
 
214 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 should not be content to bide his time, and 
 then, in the blessed security of Abraham s 
 bosom, rejoice in the torments of Dives in the 
 bottomless pit. But now, in that sudden 
 clearance of vision which often follows in the 
 wake of a great disaster, when the mightily 
 aroused passion flings its fierce light into 
 every corner of the soul, he saw how vague 
 and also how unworthy of a just man was the 
 hope of such a retribution. With every pass 
 ing instant his horizon seemed to widen ; the 
 world re-adjusted itself in his mind according 
 to new and hitherto unsuspected laws, and he 
 saw and felt things which he had never seen 
 and felt before. A burning unrest possessed 
 him, and he hungered for action of some 
 mighty sort. The mere personal wrong had 
 suddenly assumed relations to the world at 
 large, with its hoary abuses, and he yearned 
 to seize hold of its hidden levers and cog 
 wheels, and to set the universe right. 
 
 While these defiant thoughts were rushing 
 through his brain, Anders was moving rap 
 idly across the square, talking aloud to himself, 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 215 
 
 and stopping every now and then to shake his 
 fist at some invisible antagonist. Though at 
 first bewildered by the newness and the noisy 
 commotion of the great city, he was at heart 
 no milksop, and now that the slumbering 
 strength of his Norse nature had been aroused, 
 the tempest within him was not easily stilled. 
 He saw all that went on around him, but only 
 in a remote and misty way, and he felt a sort 
 of fierce satisfaction amid all his misery that 
 now at last he saw things as they actually 
 were. He pitied his old simple self, and 
 thought of his old contented life with affec 
 tionate contempt. 
 
 The sun rose higher in the heavens, the day 
 advanced ; and still he kept marching up one 
 street and down another, feeling no weariness, 
 but only a feverish need of moving. It was a 
 little after noon that he paused by accident 
 before a sooty-looking building, over the door 
 of which the coat-of-arms of the United Scan 
 dinavian kingdoms was displayed. He read 
 the name of the Norwegian consul on a sign 
 attached to one of the steps of the stairs, and 
 
216 A DANGEKOUS VIRTUE. 
 
 yielding to a momentary impulse lie entered 
 the office. It might be well not to leave any 
 stone unturned in his efforts to obtain justice. 
 The consul was a tall, well-built man, of stately 
 presence, and with a kindly and refined face. 
 He rose from his seat and received the immi 
 grant with courtesy, as if he had been a high 
 functionary of state. There was something in 
 the peasant s bearing and manner which in 
 stantly commanded respect. 
 
 " Take a seat," said the consul, inviting An 
 ders to step within the railing which divided 
 the inner sanctuary of the office from the part 
 accessible to the public. "I see by your face 
 that you have something important to say to 
 me." 
 
 "So I have, Mr. Consul," said Anders, 
 "though I hardly expect you can do much for 
 me." 
 
 And he told simply and straightforwardly 
 what had befallen him, since he landed, up to 
 the present moment. 
 
 " H m, h m ; that is a bad story," said the 
 consul ; " but whatever I can do for you shall 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 217 
 
 certaiiily be done. It is unfortunately not an 
 international affair in which your Government 
 can interfere." 
 
 " And what would you advise me to do, Mr. 
 Consul? " asked the immigrant, laying both his 
 hands weightily on his knees. 
 
 " I would advise you to write to the corpora 
 tion " 
 
 " The corporation what is that?" 
 
 " A corporation," responded the consul, with 
 a hesitating smile, "well, a corporation is a 
 sort of composite creature, which has no body 
 to be whipped, and no soul to be damned. " 
 
 " Then I am afraid there would be no use in 
 my writing to it." 
 
 " Well, then, I would write to the Hon. Kan- 
 dolph Melville, sr., personally, and state my 
 grievance plainly. He is a charitable person, 
 and would, perhaps, be induced to make an 
 exception in your favor." 
 
 Anders jumped up as if something had stung 
 him. 
 
 " Grievance ! Charity ! " he cried, indignantly. 
 " I do not ask charity, Mr. Consul I demand 
 
218 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 justice! Mr. Randolph Melville stole my 
 money, knowing that it was all I possessed in 
 this world, and knowing, too, that he would 
 fail on the following day. Now, if there is jus 
 tice to be had in this land, I want to have him 
 punished." 
 
 " Aha ! That is what you want ! " exclaimed 
 the consul. " Well, then, I am afraid I can 
 not help you. You must remember that Mr. 
 Melville is not the bank ; he is only its presi 
 dent, and he does not act without the knowl 
 edge and consent of the directors, who, natu 
 rally, are no more and no less guilty than he 
 is himself. Perhaps you would like to see the 
 whole company in jail in suits of striped gar 
 ments ? " 
 
 " I would ; and it is no more than just that, 
 if they are all guilty, they should all be pun 
 ished." 
 
 " My dear fellow, I fear your sense of justice 
 will be the ruin of you." 
 
 "I am willing to be ruined in so good a 
 cause that is, if I accomplish my end by my 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 219 
 
 " Heavenly powers ! " cried the official. 
 " What a fierce and unchristian temperament ! 
 If you had lived as long in this country, or, in 
 fact, in this world, as I have, you would have 
 learned that insisting so obstinately upon one s 
 right is the surest road to destruction, tem 
 poral and eternal. Have we not all daily to 
 accept compromises where, for some reason or 
 other, it is impossible to obtain absolute jus 
 tice ? In fact, isn t our whole political life and 
 our whole civilized society made up of com 
 promises between right and wrong? Prudence 
 dictates it ; religion recommends and sanctions 
 it. You know the parable of the unjust stew 
 ard, and Christ s counsel to his disciples to 
 make friends with the mammon of unright 
 eousness. Now, in your case, your duty is 
 very simple. Probably within a few weeks a 
 percentage of ten or fifteen cents on the dollar 
 will be declared, and you will get your share. 
 Put that in your pocket and start West, and 
 do as well as you can with it." 
 
 Anders stood with his hand on the railing, 
 listening in rebellious silence to what the con- 
 
220 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 sul said. To him such a compromise with evil 
 was mean and cowardly, and utterly repugnant. 
 No ; he wanted justice, and the last drop of his 
 blood he would stake in his efforts to obtain it. 
 
 " One thing more, Mr. Consul," he said, 
 looking up into the latter s kindly face with 
 his large serious eyes. " You know Mr. Ran 
 dolph Melville ? " 
 
 " I know him very well. I have known him 
 for years." 
 
 " Where does he live ? " 
 
 " Fifth Avenue. No. ." 
 
 " Thank you. And will he give up his fine 
 house and have his furniture sold ? " 
 
 " Good gracious, no ! I am pretty sure he 
 will not do that. The house, moreover, be 
 longs to his wife." 
 
 " Then he married a rich wife ? " 
 
 " No, not that exactly. She was quite poor 
 when he married her, but she is very rich now." 
 
 " She has inherited money since she was 
 married ? " 
 
 " No ; as far as I know, she has inherited 
 nothing." 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 221 
 
 " How then lias she gained her wealth ? " 
 
 The consul shrugged his shoulders signifi 
 cantly. 
 
 " You should not inquire too curiously into 
 family mysteries," he said, with a sardonic 
 smile. "It isn t right nor delicate." 
 
 There was a long pause, during which the 
 consul sat tapping the corner of his desk medi 
 tatively with his gold pencil. 
 
 " If I accept nothing less than a hundred 
 cents on the dollar," said Anders, at last, 
 " what will happen then ? " 
 
 " You will get nothing." 
 
 4 Yes, something I shall get." 
 
 " And what is that ?" 
 
 " Justice." 
 
 That is a poor exchange for two hundred 
 dollars." 
 
 The door opened and closed, and the heavy, 
 determined steps of the immigrant sounded 
 defiantly in the consul s ears. 
 
 "Poor fellow ! " he sighed ; " he will be sure 
 to come to grief. But for all that, one can t 
 help admiring the fine stuff he is made of." 
 
IY. 
 
 SOCIETY appears very different when looked 
 at through one eye-glass from its topmost stra 
 tum, from what it does when looked at from 
 its nether side through a haze of tears. To a 
 man who can afford French cookery and cham 
 pagne with his dinner, and who can arrange 
 his comforts regardless of their expense, the 
 ways of Providence are apt to seem just and 
 good ; while he who, since he committed the 
 mistake of being born, has been tripped up at 
 every step by fatal mischances, to whom the 
 prospect of a dinner is always more or less 
 problematic, and to whom physical comfort is 
 an unknown quantity, is hardly to be blamed 
 if he regards the existing order of things as 
 being not entirely above criticism. I have 
 heard people, who have been unacquainted 
 with any severer hardship than dyspepsia 
 after a too hearty meal, moralize blandly con 
 cerning the labor problem and the unwarrant- 
 
 222 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 223 
 
 able rebelliousness of the lower classes, and 
 devise, in the abstract, delightfully inadequate 
 remedies for the cure of the great social evils ; 
 but I have always suspected that a little con 
 crete experience of misery would shake the 
 basis of their reasoning, and, perhaps, bring 
 about a radical reconstruction of their social 
 philosophy. 
 
 Six weeks had passed since the failure of the 
 " Immigrants Savings Bank and Trust Com 
 pany." During this time Anders Rustad had 
 called almost daily at the house of Hon. Ran 
 dolph Melville, sr., on Fifth Avenue, but he 
 had never been admitted. The colored servant 
 had at last rudely slammed the door in his 
 face, as soon as he saw him, and told him that 
 if he dared to come back his master would 
 have him arrested. But Anders was nothing 
 daunted ; he had made up his mind to have an 
 interview with Mr. Melville, and was resolved, 
 if necessary, to persevere in his efforts to gain 
 admission until the sounding of the last trump. 
 He had, in the meanwhile, managed to subsist, 
 after a fashion, on the little money he had ob- 
 
224 A DANGEROUS VIBTUE. 
 
 tained by the sale of his railroad ticket to Min 
 nesota. 
 
 He had offered his case to a score of lawyers, 
 all of whom he had bewildered by his inability 
 to comprehend, or his unwillingness to abide 
 by, that system of half-measures and compro 
 mises which is embodied in our criminal and 
 civil legislation, and in some of our political 
 institutions. 
 
 "A thing is either right," this poor be 
 nighted immigrant reasoned, " and then it 
 ought to be upheld, defended, and protected; 
 or it is wrong, and should be condemned, pro 
 secuted, and punished. Eight" and wrong can 
 never shake hands and march along through 
 life, arm in arm. If Melville cheated me and 
 robbed me of my money, which his clerk would 
 not take, why then he should be locked up in 
 jail, so that other poor immigrants may be 
 protected against him, and not fall into the 
 hidden trap which again he may dig at their 
 feet." 
 
 Anders had grown strangely keen-sighted 
 during these miserable six weeks ; all the 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 225 
 
 powers of his hitherto dormant soul had been 
 awakened, and he felt himself growing in men 
 tal stature with every passing day. But the 
 feverish current of his thought had dried up 
 his blood and made his cheeks pale and hollow, 
 and his eyes large and brilliant. His disor 
 dered hair hung in. tangled locks down over his 
 forehead, his beard grew in long tufts over his 
 cheeks and chin, and his intense yet absent- 
 minded expression had so completely changed 
 the look of his face that his own brother would 
 probably have passed him without recognition, 
 had chance led their paths together. 
 
 On the evening of May 25th, Anders trudged 
 as usual up the avenue, revolving in his mind 
 some plan for capturing an interview with his 
 slippery opponent. He instinctively tightened 
 his grip on his stout cane whenever an inge 
 nious thought occurred to him, and now and 
 then he stopped to pound the pavement in 
 fierce satisfaction. He did not ring at the 
 front door this time, but he climbed the fence 
 to the back yard, and thence swung himself 
 
 up on the roof of a vine-entwined arbor, from 
 15 
 
226 A DANGEBOUS VIRTUE. 
 
 which, without difficulty, he could reach the 
 dining-room window. It w r as seven o clock. 
 The evening was warm, and a great blaze of 
 light streamed out from within through the 
 half-opened window. He saw through the slats 
 of the inside blinds a large company assembled 
 at dinner, and Mr. Melville s massive neck and 
 broad, majestic back almost within reach of 
 his outstretched arm. Next to him sat a 
 beautiful young lady in a cream-colored silk 
 dress, and with a large bunch of pale yellow 
 roses high up on her left shoulder. There was 
 a delicately insinuating flattery in her smile as 
 she turned her fair face toward Mr. Melville, 
 and submitted her airy opinions to his weighty 
 and substantial judgments. 
 
 " Really, I can t see why the laboring classes 
 should always be so horrid and discontented," 
 Anders heard her saying. " They have not our 
 fine sensibilities, and they never have been ac 
 customed to anything better than what they 
 have ; why, then, should they not accept their 
 lot in a Christian spirit of submission, instead 
 of continually grumbling against Providence 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 227 
 
 and raising tlie prices of dresses and every 
 thing by their stupid strikes? ". 
 
 "You are entirely right, Miss Van Pelt," 
 said Mr. Melville, while his lofty smile per 
 ceptibly relaxed. "It is what I have always 
 maintained that the rebelliousness of the la 
 boring classes is the direct result of the wide 
 spread religious unbelief of our age. That is 
 what these scientific disorganizes have accom 
 plished by their wicked speculations. I have 
 always been an adherent of the good, strong, 
 old-fashioned religions, with sharply defined 
 doctrines and tangible hells. I have myself 
 built a mission chapel at Five Points, and I 
 always subscribe liberally to such objects. 
 "What we especially want is preachers of un 
 questioned orthodoxy, men who will lay down 
 plainly the doctrine of punishments and re 
 wards, who will maintain strict discipline in 
 their flocks, and teach absolute submission to 
 the inscrutable ways of Providence." 
 
 Mr. Melville had delivered this little speech 
 in a clear and emphatic voice, and as he ceased 
 speaking and lifted a glass of sparkling cham- 
 
228 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 pagne to his lips, an audible murmur of ap 
 plause ran around the table. 
 
 Anders heard and understood nearly every 
 word. He trembled and clung convulsively 
 to the window-sill. There sat the thief, pros 
 perous and honored, and upon his splendid 
 board were heaped up the toil of a thousand 
 crushed and miserable creatures, the hope and 
 faith and happiness of the hungry, the needy, 
 and the oppressed, all to be devoured in a 
 leisure hour by a company of idle triflers. It 
 even seemed to Anders, as Mr. Melville raised 
 his tall champagne-glass to his lips, that he 
 was drinking down his wife s and his little 
 son s future, and all that was dear and precious 
 to him in this world. He clutched his cane 
 more tightly, but still strove to restrain his 
 fury. 
 
 At that moment a tall and corpulent man, 
 who sat a few seats from the host, rose, with 
 some slight difficulty, and demanded the privi 
 lege of expressing the sentiments which, he felt 
 assured, animated every one present in this dis 
 tinguished company. The waiters then began 
 
A DANGEROUS VIETTJE. 229 
 
 to skip around the table ; the corks popped in 
 spite of the efforts of the gentlemen from Del- 
 monico s to restrain their vivacity and the 
 sparkling liquid sissed and foamed and 
 bubbled, and threatened to overflow the finely 
 ornamented rims of the Venetian glasses. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," said the corpulent 
 guest, "it is to-day the sixtieth birth-day of 
 our honored host, Mr. Eandolph Melville. In 
 proposing the health of my esteemed friend, I 
 shall take the liberty to call your attention to 
 some of those eminent qualities by which he 
 has gained a well-merited distinction during 
 his long career of public and private useful 
 ness. First, Mr. Melville was, from his very 
 cradle, set apart for a business man. He is in 
 that respect a typical American, and embodies 
 in his talents and in his character the genius of 
 our great and glorious republic. His fellow- 
 citizens have always reposed the utmost con 
 fidence in him, and have honored him with a 
 multitude of public trusts ; and he has, by his 
 uprightness and unfailing rectitude, amply jus 
 tified their confidence. His has been a life 
 
230 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 shining brightly in the broad daylight of pub 
 licity," etc. 
 
 In this strain Mr. Melville s corpulent friend 
 continued for more than fifteen minutes; nei 
 ther he himself nor any one else seemed to 
 suspect the faintest shade of irony in his so 
 norous periods. "When he had finished, Mr. 
 Melville rose to respond. His massive head, 
 his clear, handsome features, the expanse of 
 immaculate shirt-bosom which covered his 
 broad chest, all looked wonderfully impress 
 ive. The clatter of knives and forks, and the 
 hum of vapid small-talk ceased; the gentle 
 men threw themselves back in their chairs, 
 and the ladies, with much rustling of silk and 
 satin, settled themselves into becoming atti 
 tudes of expectation. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," began Mr. Mel 
 ville, "it is with deep gratification, and yet 
 with a vivid sense of my own unworthiness, 
 that I have listened to the remarks of my es 
 teemed friend, Mr. Gauntlet. I should, how 
 ever, do myself an injustice were I to deny 
 that I have always lived and acted in accord- 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 231 
 
 ance with the light that has been vouchsafed 
 me ; and I have been fully convinced that the 
 misfortunes with which I have so recently 
 been visited have been the chastening disci 
 pline of a just Providence. And in this faith 
 
 At that moment something heavy shook the 
 floor, and made the glasses on the table jingle ; 
 before Mr. Melville had time to face more than 
 half about, two strong hands seized him by 
 the throat, and a hoarse voice shouted in his 
 ear, " You lie ! " He saw a haggard face, 
 covered with a disorderly blonde beard, thrust 
 close up to his own, and he met the gaze of 
 two fierce blue eyes which burned with an un 
 steady fire. The grip of the iron fingers tight 
 ened over his throat; the air grew black be 
 fore his eyes ; and in his struggle to free him 
 self he ground under his heels the broken frag 
 ments of the wine-glass which had fallen from 
 his hand. The male guests, who had been 
 half stunned by the suddenness of the attack, 
 now sprang to their feet and rushed to Mr. 
 Melville s assistance. One or two of the ladies 
 
232 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 fainted, and others fled screaming to the re 
 motest corner of the room, where they gath 
 ered in a promiscuous embrace, and stared with 
 fascinated fright at the struggle of the men. 
 Miss Yan Pelt only had the presence of mind 
 to skip across the hall to Mr. Melville s pri 
 vate library, and to touch the electric knob 
 which communicated with the nearest police 
 station. 
 
 The floor was shaking ; the great chandeliers 
 under the ceiling trembled ; for a few moments 
 a dozen men were intertangled in an inextric 
 able knot, which swayed to and fro, now to 
 ward the window, now toward the table, until 
 at last it fell in a heap at the foot of the mar 
 ble mantel-piece. One after another rose pant 
 ing, surveyed his disordered toilet in the long 
 mirrors, and muttered a half-suppressed oath 
 between his teeth. Only the two original com 
 batants remained motionless ; the Norseman 
 lay glaring about him in vague amazement ; a 
 shiver ran through his frame ; his fury was ex 
 pended, and seemed to have utterly exhausted 
 him. Mr. Melville lay outstretched at his 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 233 
 
 side, drawing now and then a long shuddering 
 breath, and closing his fingers with a convul 
 sive clutch. Two or three of his guests were 
 bending anxiously over him, unbuttoning his 
 waistcoat, untying his neck-tie, and feeling his 
 pulse. Presently three policemen entered ; 
 they lifted Anders up and hustled him roughly 
 toward the door. He made no remonstrance ; 
 every impulse seemed dead within him ; but 
 suddenly, as they reached the threshold, he 
 straightened himself up to his full height, 
 shook his fist threateningly, and cried, hoarse 
 ly : " Give me my money back that you stole 
 from me ! " 
 
Y. 
 
 FOE several months the Norseman remained 
 in the Tombs. No one offered to go bail for 
 him, nor did any one appear to bear witness 
 against him. The monotonous routine of the 
 prison and the degrading companionship with 
 thieves and robbers wore out his hope and his 
 courage, and left nothing but the indignation, 
 burning with a dull but steady flame, within 
 him. "With his elbows propped on his knees, 
 and his two hands clutching a tuft of hair on 
 each side of his head, he sat the livelong day, 
 pondering the deep problems of existence. 
 With eager impatience he looked forward to 
 the day of his trial ; for then, at last, he should 
 have the chance of lifting up his voice loudly 
 so as to pierce the deaf ears of justice. He 
 planned in his own mother tongue a tremen 
 dous arraignment, and several days passed be 
 fore it occurred to him that American justice 
 spoke and understood only English. Then, 
 
 234 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 235 
 
 with a miserable sense of liis helplessness, he 
 paced the floor of his narrow cell, knocking at 
 times with his forehead against the wall, but 
 hardly conscious of the pain. He felt as if his 
 thoughts were wandering beyond his control, 
 and only when the rage blazed up wildly did it 
 light the dark chambers of his brain and en 
 able him to collect his forces for action. It 
 was at such a moment that a key was heard 
 clicking in the lock, and the consul entered, 
 followed by one of the wardens. 
 
 "I have good news for you, Mr. Kustad," 
 said the consul, cheerily, grasping Anders s 
 listless hand. "You are at liberty to leave 
 this place at once." 
 
 " But, but the trial," remonstrated the pris 
 oner in a husky whisper. 
 
 "There will be no trial," answered the con 
 sul, with the air of one giving a very satisfac 
 tory piece of intelligence. " There is no one 
 to accuse you." 
 
 " Why, then, have I been imprisoned ? " 
 
 "You know that as well as I do; and you 
 ought to appreciate Mr. Melville s humane and 
 
236 A DANGEEOUS VIETUE. 
 
 merciful spirit in refusing to appear against 
 you." 
 
 "I do not want mercy, but justice! roared 
 Anders, springing to his feet and shaking his 
 huge fist in the consul s face. " I want a trial, 
 and I want to shout my wrong in the ears of 
 the whole world, and of God himself." 
 
 "Now, now, do be reasonable, Mr. Eustad," 
 urged the consul. "Only think of the hun 
 dreds, if not thousands, of poor people who are 
 in the same predicament as you are. And do 
 they make such an ado about it? No; they 
 pocket their ten per cent, which was declared 
 yesterday, and thank God that anything is left 
 to them." 
 
 "It is that very thought which maddens 
 me," cried the Norseman, still in a frenzy of 
 excitement. "Tell me where they are, these 
 poor, deluded people. Let me find them, and 
 I will shame them into a just and implacable 
 indignation at their wrongs. I will make them 
 blush at their paltry spirit in meekly accepting 
 one dollar for every ten which was their due." 
 
 The consul s face betrayed his astonish- 
 
A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 237 
 
 ment. Was this the language of a simple, un 
 taught peasant, who but half a year ago had 
 few thoughts beyond the common routine of 
 agricultural toil ? 
 
 "As your countryman, Mr. Rustad, and one 
 who wishes you well," he said, in a voice of 
 grave remonstrance, " allow me to implore you 
 to do as they have done. Accept your two 
 hundred dollars, which you can draw to-mor 
 row, and go West." 
 
 Anders turned his back on the consul with 
 disdain. 
 
 " You will not listen, then, to the voice of 
 prudence," the latter continued, laying his 
 hand persuasively on the peasant s shoulder. 
 
 " No, I will not ! " thundered the Norseman. 
 " I will not leave this place without a trial, and 
 I will accept nothing but justice." 
 
 The consul shrugged his shoulders, and then, 
 with a glance at the jailer, tapped his forehead 
 significantly. The jailer nodded as if to say 
 that he understood. Half an hour later, An 
 ders was forcibly ejected from the Tombs. 
 
YL 
 
 HE stood for a moment, bewildered, in tlie 
 glare of the daylight. A crowd of boot-blacks 
 and ragged gamins surrounded him, pulled at 
 his clothes, and jeered at him ; but he hardly 
 saw. them. The intensity of his thought dulled 
 the outer sense. Twice or thrice he shook his 
 fist at the heavens, then suddenly started with 
 a rapid, feverish stride toward Broadway, and 
 then up toward the fashionable avenue. Peo 
 ple who saw him turned to look after him ; his 
 gigantic size, his pale face, covered with a dis 
 orderly beard, and his lustrous eyes inclined 
 every one to change his course rather than 
 risk a collision. It was early in the afternoon 
 wHen Anders, without having paused for one 
 instant in his march, reached Mr. Melville s 
 brown-stone palace on the avenue. A beauti 
 ful carriage was standing before the door, and 
 the two coachmen, themselves as shiny and 
 well-groomed as their horses, were seated with 
 
 238 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 239 
 
 an air of severe propriety on the box. Cast 
 ing them a glance, full of hate and contempt, 
 Anders leaped up the front steps, just as Mr. 
 Melville himself, with a whip in his hand, and 
 in the jauntiest of English driving costumes, 
 opened the door from within. Seeing the ter 
 rible Norseman before him, he raised his whip 
 threateningly ; an expression of anger or of 
 terror, or of both, passed over his face, and he 
 seemed on the point of beating a retreat. But 
 suddenly his wrath overmastered his fear, and 
 swiftly reversing his whip he brought down 
 the butt-end with a vigorous blow on his op 
 ponent s head. Anders reeled, but, instantly 
 recovering his equilibrium, he darted forward 
 and planted his huge fist in the bankers fore 
 head. It grew black before Mr. Melville s eyes ; 
 he tottered, and, in his effort to keep his foot 
 ing, wheeled around toward the edge of the 
 stone steps, and fell backward. It was all the 
 work of one brief moment. The grooms scram 
 bled down from their seats, but they came just 
 a second too late to catch their master in his 
 fall. The blood flowed from an ugly gash in 
 
24:0 A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 
 
 his head ; a convulsive movement ran through 
 his frame ; then his features stiffened. He 
 was dead. Anders stood with folded arms at 
 the top of the stairs and looked steadfastly 
 down upon the prostrate form. He was con 
 scious of no joy or exultation, but rather of a 
 fierce contentment that justice at last had been 
 satisfied. The world seemed for one moment 
 right. 
 
 He had no thought of himself or of his own 
 fate ; it was the world s fate, and the fate of 
 the millions who suffered, mutely and without 
 thought of revenge it was this which con 
 cerned him. He could have marched to -the 
 stake unquailingly while this mood lasted. 
 "When the policemen arrived, he followed them 
 without resistance, and his simple dignity even 
 commanded some degree of respect. The fever 
 in his blood had cooled, and a great calm 
 reigned in its place. But it was not of long 
 duration. As soon as the heavy iron doors 
 had closed upon him, and the daylight fell 
 sparingly through the thick bars of the win 
 dow-gratings, his mind resumed its former 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 241 
 
 intense activity, and all the problems of the 
 universe seemed to rush in upon him, crying 
 for a solution. Strange to say, the memory of 
 his dear ones at home was well-nigh oblite 
 rated in his soul. It was the love of wife and 
 child which had driven him aAvay from his 
 snug hearth and out into the merciless world, 
 and it was the thought of them which had 
 made his misfortune tenfold more cruel and ap 
 palling. Now they seemed like a dim memory, 
 which had no longer the power to arouse him. 
 But the wrong, the brutal, fiendish wrong ! 
 this had become wife and child to him, and he 
 nursed it tenderly in his bosom. 
 
 The winter passed, and the day for the trial 
 was appointed. In the midst of his gloom he 
 looked forward to that day with triumphant 
 anticipation. He had spent the winter in dili 
 gent study of English, and had drawn up a 
 document in that tongue, which was to be read 
 in the presence of the jury. It seemed to him 
 that its charges were unanswerable and its 
 logic irresistible ; he even prided himself a lit 
 tle on the eloquence of certain passages from 
 10 
 
242 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 which, especially, he promised himself a start 
 ling effect. He was yet confident that the 
 abuses which he pointed out needed only to 
 be generally known to be instantly rectified; 
 and it hardly occurred to him that it was he 
 himself, and not the dead man, who was to be 
 tried. The consul had engaged a skillful law 
 yer to defend him, and even volunteered to 
 bear part of the expense. They had agreed to 
 set up the plea of insanity, and had appointed 
 an interview with Anders at the prison, in or 
 der to ask some questions and to give him the 
 necessary instructions. He was conducted into 
 their presence by the jailer, who remained at 
 the door while the conversation lasted. 
 
 " You have changed much during these 
 months, Mr. Eustad," said the consul, after 
 having introduced Mr. Eunyon, the lawyer, 
 "and not for the better; you should sleep 
 more and think less. "We are going to get you 
 out of this scrape all right ; you need have no 
 fear." 
 
 " I have no fear, Mr. Consul," answered An 
 ders, firmly. 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 243 
 
 " But you must follow our instructions im 
 plicitly," put in the lawyer, " or you may spoil 
 everything. You know this is a matter of life 
 and death." 
 
 " And what are your instructions ? " 
 
 " In the first place, we have agreed that we 
 have the best chance of success with the plea 
 of insanity." 
 
 "Insanity?" 
 
 "Yes, insanity." 
 
 " And do you mean to say that I am insane ? " 
 
 Anders took two long strides toward the 
 lawyer, who lifted his arms, as if in defence, 
 and retreated toward the wall. The guard 
 rushed forward, seized the Norseman by the 
 shoulder, and pulled him back. 
 
 " Now, now, my dear Mr. Kustad," cried the 
 consul, " you must keep your temper under 
 control, or we shall never get along." 
 
 The lawyer again, though with an uneasy 
 air, resumed his seat afc the consul s side at 
 the table. 
 
 " As I was saying," he began, playing ner 
 vously with his pencil, " it is not the question 
 
244 A DANGEKOUS VIRTUE. 
 
 whether the consul and I believe you insane. 
 Of course, between us, we do not. But the 
 important point is to persuade the jury that 
 you are insane." 
 
 The consul, who was anxiously watching the 
 prisoner, observed again a threatening look in 
 his eyes, and made haste to interpose : 
 
 "You understand, Mr. Eustad," he said, in 
 his pleasant, soothing voice, " that the laws of 
 this country require peculiar means to be re 
 sorted to, and I solemnly assure you that the 
 plea of insanity (which, in your case, can very 
 easily be defended) is your only escape from 
 the gallows." 
 
 "If it is just that I die, then let me die," 
 answered the peasant, calmly. "But I will 
 not owe my life to a lie." 
 
 The lawyer, still playing with his pencil, 
 leaned over toward the consul and whispered 
 in his ear. The consul nodded, then said aloud : 
 
 " "Well, Mr. Eustad, we have done the best 
 we can for you. If you wish to stand friend 
 less and take your life into your own hands, 
 then, of course, you are at liberty to do so." 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 245 
 
 The consul and the lawyer rose to go. 
 
 " One moment, Mr. Consul," Anders called 
 after him. " Here I have drawn up my own 
 defence, which I wish you and the gentleman 
 here to read. It is in this way I wish to be 
 defended." 
 
 He placed a large roll of paper on the table, 
 and the two others hastened up to examine it. 
 The lawyer, who was gazing at the opening 
 page over the consul s shoulder, suddenly 
 wheeled around upon his heel and burst into 
 a ringing laugh. The consul, too, was obliged 
 to smile at the curious English, while at the 
 same time the primitive force and tremendous 
 sincerity of the argument, not to speak of the 
 entire absence of legal form, moved him to 
 mingled admiration and pity. 
 
 "My dear Mr. Kustad," he said, "it will 
 never do to present this document." 
 
 " Yes, yes, it will," cried Mr. Eunyon, gayly, 
 snatching up the paper and putting it into his 
 pocket. " By means of this document I shall 
 establish, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the 
 fact of my client s insanity, before judge and 
 
246 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 jury, and I will bet against heavy odds, if any 
 one has a mind to take me up." 
 
 And the lawyer, still greatly amused, 
 dragged the consul with him through the open 
 door, leaving the Norseman alone with the 
 jailer. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE day for the trial arrived ; Anders s ar 
 raignment of society in the person of Mr. Mel 
 ville was read by his counsel, and excited 
 much merriment among the lawyers and as 
 tonishment among the jurymen. The quaint 
 phraseology and occasional misapplication of 
 English words called forth peals of laughter ; 
 and in spite of the judge s endeavor to main 
 tain order, he was sometimes obliged to relax 
 his stern judicial mien into something resem 
 bling a smile. Thus, when the defendant 
 spoke of " the beards of adversity " for " the 
 barbs of adversity," and described the de 
 ceased bank president as having been " per 
 forated with moral rottenness," while walking 
 in the " slimy paths of perfidy," the court must 
 have been more than human to conquer its 
 disposition to laugh. 
 
 Anders sat pale and defiant in the prisoner s 
 box, but gradually, as the laughter became 
 
 247 
 
248 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 more frequent, a look of helpless perplexity 
 settled upon his features. He was passionate 
 ly convinced of being in the right, and if the 
 world was out of gear, it was the world that 
 was ridiculous, and not he. His gaze was 
 fixed with anxious intensity on the faces of the 
 twelve jurymen, to whom, as representatives 
 of the American people, a peculiar sanctity at 
 tached. He had a dim notion that they had 
 been elected for the purpose of trying him by 
 the suffrage of the whole nation, very much 
 as are the President and the Vice-Presi clent. 
 They, he hoped, would be superior to this un 
 dignified merry-making ; they would see clear 
 ly the justice of his cause, and the dishonesty 
 and insolence of the lawyer who was trying to 
 prove him insane. He saw them retire in or 
 der to deliberate ; but hardly five minutes had 
 elapsed before they all reappeared, and one of 
 them, who seemed to be stouter and redder 
 than the rest, addressed the judge in a pom 
 pous voice, declaring the prisoner to be " not 
 guilty." 
 1 "Not guilty" no, to be sure he was not 
 
A DANGEROUS YIRTUE. 249 
 
 guilty. It was Mr. Melville wlio was guilty, 
 and it was a pity lie was not here to be tried. 
 Then, after all, there was a spark of right and 
 justice remaining in the world. At that mo 
 ment the consul and Mr. Runyon came rush 
 ing up to him with extended hands. 
 
 " Allow me to congratulate you, Mr. Bus tad," 
 said the consul. " You ought to thank this 
 gentleman heartily for his able efforts in your 
 behalf." 
 
 "You see, after all we managed to prove 
 you insane," whispered the lawyer, facetiously, 
 " or rather, as I expected, you proved your 
 self to be insane without much assistance on 
 my part." 
 
 Anders suddenly saw the logic of the situa 
 tion. In pronouncing him " not guilty," the 
 jury had merely excused Iris, deed by declaring 
 that he was not responsible for it ; they had 
 accepted Mr. Eunyon s plea that he was in 
 sane. Heart-sick and miserable, he turned 
 away, and under the escort of two policemen 
 walked out of the court-room. It was too late 
 in the day to make out his papers of dis- 
 
250 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 charge, and lie was therefore conducted to a 
 much roomier and more comfortable cell, 
 where he was only to spend the night. He 
 flung himself on the bed, and motioned to the 
 policemen to leave him alone. He felt as if 
 something had snapped within him like the 
 spring in a watch, and left the vital machinery 
 hopelessly out of gear. He got up merely to 
 try if he could hold himself erect, but his 
 motions were those of an old man. All his 
 confidence in his strength had deserted him. 
 Presently his head began to swim, and a vapor 
 gathered before his eyes. He let himself sink 
 down again upon the couch. 
 
 Ten days later, it was one of those early 
 days in May when earth and sky seem to be 
 united in one joyous harmony, a peasant wo 
 man, in Norse costume, called at the Tombs, 
 and inquired for Anders Eustad. She was 
 carrying a chubby little boy, about eighteen 
 months old, on her arm. She smoothed the 
 child s hair carefully with her hand, while 
 waiting for the reply of the door-keeper. 
 
 "Anders Eustad," she said, with anxious 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 251 
 
 inquiry in her voice and eyes. " Anders Eus- 
 tad." 
 
 " Anders Eustad is pretty low to-day," said 
 a man who had been summoned by the door 
 keeper. "He can t see nobody." 
 
 The young woman shook her head with a 
 puzzled air. She did not understand. For 
 three days she kept returning, and at last 
 seated herself patiently on the curb-stone, 
 waiting to be admitted. Whenever the gate 
 was opened, she rushed forward and cried : 
 
 " Anders Eustad ! Anders Eustad ! " 
 
 But she received no reply. It was toward 
 evening on the fourth day that the consul, ac 
 companied by a physician, stepped from his 
 coupe in front of the prison. Seeing the peas 
 ant woman, whose Norse costume caught his 
 eye, he addressed her and asked her who she 
 was. 
 
 "Anders Eustad," she said; "Anders Eus 
 tad. He is my husband. This is my child 
 and his." 
 
 The consul beckoned to her to follow him, 
 and she kept close to his heels while they 
 
252 A DANGEROUS VIETUE. 
 
 mounted the stairs and walked through the 
 long and gloomy galleries. 
 
 They stopped before the door of a cell, 
 which was promptly opened. A dim lamp 
 burned on a dirty-looking table, and there was 
 a strong odor of kerosene in the room. Anders 
 lay outstretched, pale and calm, on the iron 
 bed. There was a pained resignation visible 
 in his features, across which nickered now and 
 then a fleeting gleam of a thought. 
 
 " Here is your wife, Mr. Rustad," said the 
 consul, leading the woman up to the bedside. 
 " And here is your little son." 
 
 The sick man turned his eyes in a tired, 
 spiritless fashion, and fixed them upon his 
 wife and child. The same puzzled look which, 
 except in his moments of defiance, had of late 
 become habitual with him, slowly contracted 
 his brow, and he seemed to be struggling with 
 some remote memory. The woman, too, seem 
 ed half-frightened, as if doubtful whether this 
 haggard man, with the terrible eyes and un 
 kempt beard and hair, could really be the 
 strong and cheerful husband who, but a year 
 
A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 253 
 
 ago, had gone out into the world to prepare 
 a home for her. She stood for a while anx 
 iously scrutinizing his features, then retired 
 step by step toward the door, holding the 
 child firmly clasped in her embrace. 
 
 " This is not my husband," she said to the 
 consul, struggling with her tears, which were 
 in her voice rather than in her eyes. " But I 
 am going out to seek him." 
 
 " This is Anders Eustad," said the consul ; 
 "and if you are his wife, this is your last 
 chance to bid him farewell in this world." 
 
 The woman once more drew near to the bed, 
 gazed once more, and shuddered. The child 
 began to cry piteously, and, hushing it at her 
 bosom, she hastened out of the room. 
 
 " That was his wife," said the consul to the 
 physician. 
 
 " Poor thing ! " sighed the latter ; " she did 
 not know him." 
 
 He stooped down to feel the sick man s 
 pulse. " He is sinking rapidly," he whispered. 
 "It will be over soon." 
 
 " Do you know what caused his death, doc- 
 
254 A DANGEROUS VIRTUE. 
 
 tor ? " asked the consul, after a long pause, 
 just as the last spark of life seemed to be flick 
 ering in the stiffening features. 
 
 " No," said the doctor. 
 
 "It was the over-development of a virtue 
 His sense of justice killed him." 
 
WOMAN S HANDIWORK 
 
 IN MODERN HOMES. 
 
 BY 
 CONSTANCE GARY HARRISON. 
 
 One Volume, 8vo, Richly Bound in Illuminated Cloth, with numerous Illustrations 
 
 and Five Colored Plates from designs by SAMUEL COLMAN, ROSINA 
 
 EMMET, GEORGE GIBSON, and others. 
 
 Price, $2.00. 
 
 Mrs. Harrison s book combines a discussion of the prin 
 ciples of design and decoration, practical chapters on 
 embroidery, painting on silk and china, etc., with most 
 helpful hints as to the domestic manufacture of many objects 
 of use and beauty in house-furnishing, and also suggestions 
 for the arrangement and decoration of rooms in the details 
 of screens, portieres, the mantel-piece, etc. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 "A volume quite the most comprehensive of its kind ever published." The Art 
 Interchange. 
 
 " It is, indeed, the most comprehensive and practical guide to the amateur decorative 
 arts that has yet appeared. 11 Art Amateur. 
 
 "The work supplies a current need of the day, which nothing else has met." Boston 
 Traveller. 
 
 "Unquestionably one of the very best of its class that we have. 1 TV. Y. Evening 
 Post. 
 
 " Mrs. Harrison has grouped together in her book about as much useful information 
 as it is possible to get together in the same number of pages." Baltimore Gazette. 
 
 "Mrs. Harrison s book is one of the very few books on household art which can 
 be unreservedly commended." The World. 
 
 "Mrs. Harrison s suggestions are within the reach of the most limited means." 
 The Critic. 
 
 " Full of suggestions, descriptions, and illustrations, of the kind that fasc ; nate all 
 those whose chief joy is in making home beautiful and happy." N. Y. Observer. 
 
 " Everything important that relates to the furnishing and ornamentation of houses 
 will be found in this work, which is rich in important information, and noticeable for its 
 good taste, sound judgment, and practical wisdom." Boston Saturday Eve. Gazette. 
 
 " Mrs. Harrison seems to have included in her work instructions for every aesthetic 
 emergency that can arise in a household." Providence Journal. 
 
 *** For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
 frice, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
THE GRANDISSIMES. 
 
 A STORY OF CREOLE LIFE. 
 
 By GEORGE W. CABLE, 
 
 Author of " Old Creole Days." 
 
 One Volume, 12mo, extra cloth, $1.5O. 
 
 The extraordinary interest excited by Mr. Cable s sketches of life in the 
 old French quarter of New Orleans, in his first book, " Old Creole Days," 
 will be still further aroused by his novel of Creole life. 
 
 The scene of the story is laid in New Orleans, in the earlier years of the 
 century, at the time of the cession of Louisiana to the United States by 
 Napoleon. With wonderful delicacy of touch, Mr. Cable outlines his plot, 
 portraying the stubborn adherence of the Creoles to the old regime, their 
 unwillingness to enter the Union, the feud of the Grandissimes and the 
 Fusiliers, and its far-reaching consequences. All the characters of the story 
 have an originality and distinctness that make them veritable creations. 
 
 " Such a book goes far towards establishing an epoch in fiction, and it places it be 
 yond a doubt that we have in Mr. Cable a novelist of positive originality, and of the very 
 first quality." Boston Journal. 
 
 " It will be difficult to point to anything more vigorously dramatic in our best writers 
 than The Story of Bras-Coupe, forming chapters twenty-eight and twenty-nine. Bos 
 ton Saturday Evening Gazette. 
 
 " The Grandissimes is simply a wonderful romance-^the work of an undoubted ge 
 nius a new novelist of remarkable power, claims the attention of the American public. 
 It bears its special stamp as markedly as did Gottschalk s music." New York Times. 
 
 " In point of steady, continued po wer, displayed alike in plot and description, in point 
 of the rarest local coloring evidently derived from the closest study and observation of 
 Creole life, we rank this book as among the very first of American fictions." Christian 
 In telligencer. 
 
 " Mr. Cable shows the instincts of a thorough artist, as well as the genius of a nov 
 elist of the first rank. . . . It would be difficult to imagine two lovelier types of woman 
 hood than the youthful widow Aurore and her daughter Clotilde, or a stronger, more ma 
 jestic specimen of the thorough gentleman than Honore Graudissime. Baltimore Ga 
 zette. 
 
 " The Grandissimes 1 is a novel that repays study. It opens to most of us an un 
 known society, an unknown world, absolutely fresh characters, a dialect of which we had 
 only fragments before, and it illuminates a historical period that was in the dark . . . 
 It is, in many respects, the most original contribution to American fiction." Hartford 
 Courant. 
 
 " There are few living American writers who can reproduce for us more perfectly than 
 Mr. Cable does, in his best moments, the speech, the manners, the whole social atmosphere 
 of a remote time and a peculiar people. Characters stand out from his pages with a life 
 like distinctness ; and in their dialogue we hear the very tones of their voice and catch 
 the eccentr, cities of their accent. A delicious flavor of humor penetrates the story ; and 
 the tragic portions . . . are handled with rare strength." New York Tribune. 
 
 *#* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
 price, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
ARMY LIFE IN RUSSIA. 
 
 By F. V. GREENE, 
 
 LIEUTENANT OF ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ARMY, 
 
 Late Military Attache to the U. S. Legation in St. Petersburg* and author oj 
 " The Russian Army and its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-78." 
 
 One Volume, 12mo, .... $1.50. 
 
 Lieutenant Greene s opportunities for general as well as technical 
 observation while with the Russian army in Turkey were such as have 
 perhaps never fallen to any other student of the war. The story of this 
 personal experience is embodied in this volume, which contains most 
 vigorous and vivid descriptions of battle scenes, in the chapters on the 
 Shipka Pass, Plevna, and in the very strong and excellent chapter on the 
 winter campaign across the Balkans with Gourko. The chapters on the 
 Tsar and the Russian generals, and the sections devoted to the Russian 
 soldier, to St. Petersburg, and the army life of the Russian at home, are of 
 absorbing interest. 
 
 " His sketches are excellently well done, graphic, evidently not exaggerated, and 
 very readable. It is a book that will be read with pleasure, and one that contains a 
 great deal of information." Hartford Courant. 
 
 "This volume is in every way an admirable picture of army life in Russia. It is 
 clear, concise, discriminating, and often very picturesque. The author, besides pos 
 sessing an excellent style, is extremely modest, and there are very few books of travel 
 in which the first person is kept so absolutely in the background." International 
 Review. 
 
 " Lieutenant Greene writes in a soldierly way, unaffected, straightforward, and 
 graphic, and, though he has a keen eye for the picturesque, never sacrifices to rhetoric 
 the absolute truthfulness so eminently to be desired in a narrative of this sort. Neiu 
 York World. 
 
 " He was with the Russian army throughout the campaign, enjoying perfect free 
 dom of movement, having every opportunity to visit the points of greatest activity, and 
 to see the operations of greatest moment, in company with the officers who conducted 
 them. His book is, therefore, for all the purposes of ordinary readers, a complete and 
 satisfactory history of the war, founded upon intimate personal knowledge of its events, 
 and of its spirit It is a work of the rarest interest and of unusual merit." Neiu York 
 Evening Post. 
 
 "It is most fortunate for the reputation of our country and our army that we had 
 such an officer to send to the far-away land of Turkey in Europe, and most creditable to 
 our War Department that it sent such a man. His book deseves to be universally read, 
 and we are sure that no person whom these lines may lead to purchase it will fail to 
 rejoice that they have been written." The Nation. 
 
 *#* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt o/ 
 price, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
OLD CREOLE DAYS. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE W. CABLE. 
 
 One Volume, 16mo, extra cloth, ... $1.OO. 
 
 Mr. Cable s sketches of life in the old French quarter of New Orleans 
 display a ireshness and originality, an insight into the character of the 
 mixed races there, and a faculty of seizing on the picturesque phases of 
 life among these oddly contrasted people, that give them an importance 
 far ibove their value as a mere collection of clever stories. " Sieur 
 George," " Madame Delicieuse," " Jean-ah Poquelin," and "The Belles 
 Demoiselles Plantation," are some of the stories included carrying even 
 in their titles some of their quaint attractiveness. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 14 It is very seldom indeed that we meet with a book so distinctly marking the advent 
 of a writer of high artistic power and fresh observation, as this of Mr. Cable s. After 
 re-reading carefully, and with the keenest enjoyment, the stories now collected under one 
 heading, we not only have no hesitation in pronouncing their author a genius with special 
 and captivating endowments, but we feel it an imperative critical duty to so declare him." 
 
 Boston Courier. 
 
 " Mr. Cable has the rare gift of keen observation united to great descriptive power. 
 . . . He has portrayed the character of the remnant of France stranded on a foreign 
 shore, in so many aspects, that the reader gains a most perfect idea of the strange com 
 pound of courtesy and selfishness, of grace and untruthfulness, of bravery and cunning, 
 which that character presents. . . The stories, themselves, display an inventive genius 
 which ranks the author among the best of our modern writers." Christian Inttlligencer, 
 
 "These charming stories attract attention and commendation by their quaint delicacy 
 of style, their faithful delineation of Creole character, and a marked originality. The 
 carelul rendering of the dialect reveals patient study of living models ; and to any reader 
 whose ear is accustomed to the broken English, as heard in the parts of our city every 
 day, its truth to nature is striking." New Orleans Picayune. 
 
 " Here is true art work. Here is poetry, pathos, tragedy, humor. Here is an entranc 
 ing style. Here is a new field, one full of passion and beauty. Here is local color with 
 strong drawing. Here, in this little volume, is life, breath, and blood. The author ol 
 this book is an artist, and over such a revelation one may be permitted strong words." 
 
 Cincinnati Times 
 
 "To a keen zest for what is antique and picturesque, Mr. Cable adds a surprising 
 skill, for so young a writer, in conceiving and developing a plot. . . . He has ren 
 dered very finely the attractive childlike quality so often seen among men of Latin races, 
 and as to his women, they are as delightful as the scent of the flowers which he mention* 
 every now and then." N. Y. Times. 
 
 " The seven sketches which compose this bright little volume are full of a delicate pathetk 
 humor which has rarely been equaled in American Literature." Detroit Free Press, 
 
 " These half-pathetic, half-humorous, and altogether delicate sketches, constitute 
 extremely good literature. . . . There is the touch of a true artist in them." Ev. Post. 
 
 "These stories contain a most attractive blending of vivid descriptions of local scenery 
 with admirable delineations of personal character." Congregationalis*. 
 
 *$* The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will le sent, j>rej>aid t aufo* 
 **<& offrice, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW Tout 
 
KNIGHTS OF TO-DAY; 
 
 OR, LOVE AND SCIENCE. 
 By CHARLES BARNARD. 
 
 One Volume, Square ISrno, . . $1.OO. 
 
 Mr. Barnard s stories are in a new field of romance, in which 
 courage and quickness of resource work through the most modern 
 weapons, and the quick-witted American knight of to-day has 
 taken up the new arms of the new times the steam-engine, the 
 telegraph, heliograph, camera, and switch-rod, to do and dare for 
 love and duty. 
 
 " They are strong, well-written, and pathetic stories, brimful of action and interest." 
 Charleston News and Courier. 
 
 "A pleasanter book of light reading has not been printed in this year of grace than 
 Mr. Barnard s Knights of To-day. " Roc/tester Herald. 
 
 " Mr. Barnard is one of the best of our short story tellers, and this little volume will 
 be heartily welcomed by his many admirers." Boston Transcript. 
 
 "The book is not alone capable of giving pleasure, but it possesses merit beyond idle 
 gratification ; for it suggests, even to the thoughtless, the romantic possibilities of the fu 
 ture." Inter-Ocean, (Denver, Col-) 
 
 "A volume of dashing, lively stories, in which the romance of love is mingled with the 
 romance of science in perfectly artistic proportions. The stories are really fascinating." 
 Cincinnati Commercial. 
 
 "They are strong and well-written stories, with plenty of action to keep the interest 
 from flagging, and they are made instructive from the important part which modern sci 
 ence plays in the development of the plot." Washington National Republican. 
 
 " Each story has for its point the application of some scientific matter in furtherance 
 of love s mission, and the appropriateness of each coincidence throws a spice into the 
 whole that is delicious." Pittsburgh Telegraph. 
 
 " Seven capital little romantic stories by Charles Barnard . . . have been collected 
 and printed in a characteristically bound volume. They are stories of the railroad and 
 telegraph, and some of the descriptions of dangers occurring and accidents averted by 
 the heroes and heroines of the rail and wire make the reader almost breathless as he reads 
 them. There is real feeling and dramatic power, not unmiugled with humor, in these 
 lively litt .e romances." Philadelphia Bulletin. 
 
 "That the novelist of the future has a great field before him in the application of prac 
 tical science to the mysteries of love, Mr. Charles Barnard s Knights of To- Day goes 
 far to demonstrate. In the stories collected under this title, Cupid no longer wields ihe 
 old-fashioned clumsy bow and arrow he avails himself of electricity and the Morse al 
 phabet, the photographer s camera, the stereopticon, and pierces the heart of his victim 
 with a ray from the heliograph. The novelty of these tales is refreshing k Young people 
 will enjoy them, and learn something of the fascination of scientific pursuits at the same 
 time." Boston Traveller. 
 
 *%* For sale by all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
 price, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
TURKISH LIFE IN WAR TIME. 
 
 By HENRY O. DWIGHT. 
 
 One Volume, 12mo, $1.50. 
 
 Mr. Dwight s familiarity with the languages and manners of the capital, 
 and his numerous sources of information from almost all parts of Turkey, 
 have enabled him to give a most faithful account of the transactions of the 
 war as seen from a Turkish point of view, and also incidentally to put his 
 reader in possession of much information respecting the motley races under 
 Turkish rule. 
 
 "The work can be especially commended as a graphic, and clear, and never-wearying 
 story." N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 
 
 "The book fills a place in the literature relating to its subject which, so far as we can 
 judge, would be empty without it." Boston Congregationalist. 
 
 " It is even more charming than a good book of travel ; for the author pictures scenes 
 with which he is familiar, and knows the full value of every incident he records." Cin 
 cinnati Christian Standard. 
 
 " It abounds in stirring incident of most exciting times, graphic descriptions of 
 thrilling scenes, and information of importance to statesmen and of great interest to the 
 general reader." N. Y. Observer. 
 
 "A better idea of the Turkish character may be gained through the many anecdotes 
 and descriptions of scenes given by the writer, than by the study of any previous history 
 with which we are acquainted." Baptist Weekly. 
 
 " No book yet published covers precisely the same ground, or handles the subject in 
 precisely the same way. We find ourselves, in its perusal, lending very much the sort 
 of attention to it that we should to the narrative of a friend who had passed through ihe 
 scenes which Mr. Dwight s letters portray." Syracuse Herald. 
 
 "This book is the most vivid and faithful sketch of Turkish character that we have 
 ever seen. . . . It is mainly a series of interesting notes and sketches, giving those 
 little details of life and thought from day to day, in a time of great excitement, which 
 are so essential in order to gain an accurate knowledge of any people." The Nation. 
 
 " The book has more than a transient value. It is a contribution to history. The 
 author has not only descriptive talent, but a gift for discerning the meaning of the political 
 and military manoeuvres, which encompassed Constantinople. While sufficiently inter 
 esting to the general reader, the book is full of information for the student of manners 
 and of pol.tical affairs." A 7 . Y. Christian Advocate. 
 
 * ^It is to us admirable in every sense. It is judicious, discriminating, comprehen 
 sive, impartial, free from animosity in its thorough and candid criticisms; eminently 
 clear, vigorous, and animated in . expression ; tells us just what we wish to know, and 
 wastes no time in doing it The book is one to which the reader can sur 
 render himself and simply enjoy." A 7 ". Y. Christian Intelligencer. 
 
 "| Turkish Life in War Time, does not pretend to be a history of the Russian war, 
 but it is a more valuable work than any so-called history we have seen. It is a record, 
 the almost daily record, of a very keen observer, who set down the events that he saw, 
 and who, from acquaintance with the Orient, understood the bearing of those events. It 
 has all the interest of a personal narrative, and all the weight that we accord to an honest 
 and well-informed observer. It is to such records of eye-witnesses as these that future 
 historians must resort." Hartford Courant. 
 
 *#* For sale ty all booksellers, or sent, post-paid, upon receipt of 
 tirice, by 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
HAW^ORTH S * 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT, 
 
 Author of "THAT LASS O LOWRIE S." 
 
 One Vol. 12mo, Illustrated, - - - - - - Price, $1,50, 
 
 The publication of a new novel from Mrs. Burnett s pen has become an 
 event of more than ordinary moment, both to the critics and the public ; 
 and HAWORTH S fulfills the best anticipations of both. It is in the 
 direct line of development of the author s strongest traits, and marks a 
 higher point than was reached even in the best passages of her first story. 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 1 Ha-wortHs is a product of genius of a very high order a piece of 
 work wliich will hold a permanent place in literature; one of those mas 
 terly performances that rise wholly above the plane of light literature upon 
 which novels are generally placed." Evening Post. 
 
 " It is but faint praise to speak of HaivortJfs as merely a good novel. 
 It is one of the few great novels. . . . As a story, it is alive through 
 out with a thrilling interest which does not flag from beginning to end, 
 and, besides the story, there is in it a wonderfully clever study of human 
 nature." Hartford C our ant. 
 
 44 Haw ortfts will unquestionably be acknowledged one of the great 
 literary achievements of the day. The chief feature is its intense dramatic 
 power. It consists almost wholly of vividly-presented pictures, which so 
 impress themselves on the mind of the reader, that the effect is more that 
 of seeing the story acted than of reading it." Boston Post. 
 
 "Conversation and incident move naturally and with perfect freedom, 
 jret there is not a page which does not essentially aid in the development 
 of plot. . . . The handsome illustrations are in tone and keeping 
 with the spirit of the book." Buffalo Courier. 
 
 " The book is original, powerful, helpful, dramatic, vivid and great. 
 Every character is cut with the distinctness of a cameo, and every one is 
 unique. . . . The art of the volume is perfect. Every word is needed 
 to effect the result. The pictures fit into one another. The whole is a 
 faultless mosaic." Albany Argus. 
 
 %* For salt by tll booksellers, or -will be sent, frcfaid, itfion receipt of f rice, ly 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
New Edition in handsome Binding. Each I vol. ismo. uniform, 
 txtra cloth, $1.25 per vol. 
 
 The Erckmann-Chatrian Novels. 
 
 FRIEND FRITZ : A Tale of the Banks of the Lauter. Including 
 a Story of College Life " MAITRE NABLOT." 
 
 Friend Fritz* is a charmingly sunny and refreshing story" N, Y. Tribune. 
 
 THE CONSCRIPT: A Tale of the French War of 1813. With 
 
 four full-page illustrations. 
 
 From the Cincinnati Daily Commercial. 
 
 " It is hardly fiction it is history in the guise of fiction, and that part of history 
 which historians hardly write, concerning the disaster, the ruin, the sickness, the 
 poverty, and the utter misery and suffering which war brings upon the people. 
 
 WATERLOO : A Story of the Hundred Days. Being a Sequel 
 to "The Conscript." With four full-page illustrations. 
 
 From the New York Daily Herald. 
 
 " Written in that charming style of simplicity -which has made the ERCKMANN- 
 CHA.YRIAN works popular in every language in which they have been published." 
 
 THE PLEBISCITE : The Miller s Story of the War. A vivid 
 
 Narrative of Events in connection with the great Franco -Prussian 
 War of 1872. 
 
 THE BLOCKADE OF PHALSBURG : An Episode of the 
 Fall of the First French Empire. With four full-page Illustrations 
 and a Portrait of the Authors. 
 
 From the PhiladelpJtia Daily Inquirer. 
 
 " Not only are they interesting historically, but intrinsically a pleasant, well-constructed 
 plot, serving in each case to connect the great events which they so graphically treat, 
 and the style being as vigorous and charming as it is pure and refreshing. 
 
 INVASION OF FRANCE IN 1814. With the Night March past 
 Phalsburg. With a Memoir of the Authors. With four full-page 
 Illustrations. 
 
 From the Ne-tv York Evening Mail. 
 
 "AU their novels are noted for the same admirable qualities simple and effective 
 realism of plot, incident and language, and a disclosure of the horrid individual aspects 
 of war. They are absolutely perfect of their kind." 
 
 MADAME THERESE ; or, the Volunteers of 92. With four full- 
 page Illustrations. 
 
 Front the Boston Commonwealth. 
 
 "It is a hoy s story that is, supposed to be written by a boy and has all the 
 [rashness, the unconscious simplicity and naivete which the imagined authorship should 
 ,mply : while nothing more graphic, more clearly and vividly pictorial, has been brought 
 before the public for many a day." 
 
 *$* The above books for sale by ail booksellers, or will be sent, post or exprest 
 tkarges paid, upon receipt of the price by the publishers^ 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. 
 
LIFE AND LETTERS OF 
 
 MADAME BONAPARTE. 
 
 BY E. L. DIDIER. 
 
 i Volume, i2mo, Cloth. With Portrait, - $1.50. 
 
 The remarkable career of Madame Bonaparte, which ended at Balti 
 more, in April of this year, possessed features which make it as interesting 
 as a romance. Few of the present generation, when they read in the 
 daily papers the notice of the death, at the great age of ninety-four, of this 
 brilliant, fascinating, and once dazzlingly beautiful woman, realized what 
 a long and varied series of events had been comprised in her life. The 
 account of Elizabeth Patterson s marriage, at eighteen, to Jerome Bona 
 parte, the brother of Napoleon; of her desertion by her husband at 
 Napoleon s order, and of the ambitious woman s long and determined 
 struggle for her rights, make up a sufficiently eventful story. 
 
 But the wonderfully full and varied character of Madame Bonaparte s 
 life is only fully appreciated when it is remembered that all this had hap 
 pened before she was thirty ; that after the Restoration she was still to 
 spend years of brilliant social success, in different parts of Europe, among 
 the most prominent people of the time. 
 
 A great number of her letters, covering portions of her life as fully 
 as a diary, have come into the hands of Mr. Eugene L. Didier, 
 who has been for several years a special student of everything bearing 
 upon Madame Bonaparte s career, and has had every advantage for making 
 a thorough biographical study. In her correspondence her opinions are 
 expressed with a peculiar candor ; and the cynical frankness with which 
 she avows her ambitions and motives, the pungency of her comments upon 
 the people about her, and the accuracy of her judgments, as they are found 
 in these pages, show clearly the sharp outlines of her singular character. 
 
 The publishers have had the privilege of consulting Mr. Charles 
 Bonaparte, of Baltimore, in regard to the publication of the volume, and, 
 while he is in no sense responsible for any portion of the book, they are 
 indebted to him for very valuable suggestions and criticisms. 
 
 The biography will be illustrated with a copy of Gilbert Stuart s 
 beautiful portrait of Madame Bonaparte at the time of her marriage, giving 
 three different views of the face on the same canvas. 
 
 %* The above book for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, post or exprtit 
 th^rges pa.id y upon receipt of price, by the publishers^ 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YOEX. 
 
The best original novel that has appeared in this country for man* 
 years." PHIL, PKESS. 
 
 THAT LASS LOWRIE S. 
 
 BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT. 
 
 PRESS NOTICES. 
 
 "The publication of a story like That Lass o Lowrie s is a red-letter day in th 
 world of literature." JV. Y. Herald. 
 
 " We know of no more powerful work from a woman s hand in the English language, 
 act even excepting the best of George Eliot s." Boston Transcript. 
 
 "It creates a sensation among book readers." Hartford Times. 
 
 "The novel is one of the very best of recent fictions, and the novelist is hereafter a 
 person of rank and consideration in letters" Hartford Courant. 
 
 "The author might have named her book Joan Lowrie, Lady, and it is worthy a 
 place in the family library beside Miss Muloch s, John Halifax, Gentleman/ and 
 George Eliot s Adam Bede. " Boston Watchman. 
 
 "The story is one of mark, and let none of our readers, who enjoy the truest artistic 
 work, overlook it" Congregationalist. 
 
 " Unlike most of the current works of fiction, this novel is a study. It cannot be sifted 
 ftt a glance, nor fully understood at a single reading, so fruitful and comprehensive is its 
 word and character painting." Boston Post. 
 
 Price, Paper Covers, go cents; or, $1.50 Extra Cloth. 
 
 SURLY TIM, AND OTHER STORIES 
 
 By the Author of " That Lass o 1 Lowrie s" 
 One volume, small ismo. Cloth extra, .... $1.25. 
 
 The volume includes eight of Mrs. Burnett s shorter stories, which have 
 appeared in the magazines during the last few years. It is needless to say 
 that these have been among the most popular tales that have lately been 
 written. Surly Tim (told in Lancashire dialect), which gives the title 
 to the book, is perhaps better known than any short story yet published 
 in SCRIBNER S, 
 
 CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
 They are powerful and pathetic stories, and will touch the sympathies of all readers." 
 -~Tke Commonwealth, Boston. 
 
 " A good service has been rendered to all lovers of good fiction by the publication cl 
 these stories in this permanent form." The Evening Mail, 
 
 ** Tltt above books for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent, fast or txfren 
 upot\ receipt of the price by the publishers^ 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER S SONS, 
 
 743 AND 745 BROADWAY, NEW YOIK,