the reaction had fairly set in, when the exaltation had fizzled
away and the young-lady portion of her had crept timorously back
to its wonted lodging, she could only see herself as a plain
fool, unjustified, undeniable, without a shadow of an excuse or
explanation.

As for Harold, youth and a short memory made his case less
pitiful than it seemed to his more sensitive sister. True, he
started upstairs to his lonely cot bellowing dismally, before him
a dreary future of pains and penalties, sufficient to last to the
crack of doom. Outside his door, however, he tumbled over
Augustus the cat, and made capture of him; and at once his
mourning was changed into a song of triumph, as he conveyed his
prize into port. For Augustus, who detested above all things
going to bed with little boys, was ever more knave than fool, and
the trapper who was wily enough to ensnare him had achieved
something notable. Augustus, when he realized that his fate was
sealed, and his night's lodging settled, wisely made the best of
things, and listened, with a languorous air of complete
comprehension, to the incoherent babble concerning pigs and
heroes, moles and bonfires, which served Harold for a self-sung
lullaby. Yet it may be doubted whether Augustus was one of those
rare fellows who thoroughly understood.

But Selina knew no more of this source of consolation than of the
sympathy with which the stars were winking above her; and it was
only after some sad interval oftime, and on a very moist
pillow, that she drifted into that quaint inconsequent country
where you may meet your own pet hero strolling down the road, and
commit what hair-brained oddities you like, and everybody