rather than wait at the hotel), and she must have looked very ridiculous
in her fine clothes and the broken-down buggy. When her trunk came by
express to-morrow she would look out something more sober. She must
remember that she was in a Catholic and religious household now. Ah,
yes! how very fine it was to see that priest at dinner in his soutane,
sitting down like one of the family, and making them all seem like a
picture of some historical and aristocratic romance! And then they were
actually "de Fontanges l'Hommadieu." How different he was from that
shabby Methodist minister who used to come to see her father in a black
cravat with a hideous bow! Really there was something to say for a
religion that contained so much picturesque refinement; and for her
part--but that will do. I beg to say that I am not writing of any
particular snob or feminine monstrosity, but of a very charming
creature, who was quite able to say her prayers afterwards like a good
girl, and lay her pretty cheek upon her pillow without a blush.

She opened her window and looked out. The moon, a great silver dome,
was uplifting itself from a bluish-gray level, which she knew was the
distant plain of wheat. Somewhere in its midst appeared a dull star,
at times brightening as if blown upon or drawn upwards in a comet-like
trail. By some odd instinct she felt that it was the solitary forge
of the young inventor, and pictured him standing before it with his
abstracted hazel eyes and a face more begrimed in the moonlight than
ever. When DID he wash himself? Perhaps not until Sunday. How lonely it
must be out there! She slightly shivered and turned from the window.
As she did so, it seemed to her that something knocked against her door
from without. Opening it quickly, she was almost certain that the sound
of a rustling skirt retreated along the passage. It was very late;
perhaps she had disturbed the house by shutting her window. No doubt
it was the motherly interest of Mrs. Randolph that impelled her to