water; some day I shall see this mystery riding on the surface.



XII


Yes, she knew; while unconscious I talked of Georgiana, of being
in love with her. Mrs. Walters added, sadly, that Georgiana
came home in the fall engaged to that New York cousin. Hence the
sewing--he is to marry her in June.

I am _not_ in love with her. It is now four weeks since hearing
this conventional fiction, and every day I have been perfectly
able to repeat: "I am _not_ in love with Georgiana!" There was
one question which I put severely to Mrs. Walters: Had she told
Georgiana of my foolish talk? She shook her head violently, and
pressed her lips closely together, suggesting how impossible it
would be for the smallest monosyllable in the language to escape
by that channel; but she kept her eyes wide open, and the truth
issued from them, as smoke in a hollow tree, if stopped in at a
lower hole, simply rises and comes out at a higher one. "You should
have shut your eyes also," I said. "You have told her every word
of it, and the Lord only knows how much more."

This February has let loose its whole pack of grizzly sky-hounds.
Unbroken severe weather. Health has not returned as rapidly as was
promised, and I have not ventured outside the yard. But it is a
pleasure to chronicle the beginning of an acquaintanceship between
his proud eminence the young cardinal and myself. For a long time