can't believe my eyes! How is it that you are growing so beautiful? Is it
witchcraft?"

"Am I better looking?" I inquire languidly. "Well, I'm glad of it. I had
an aunt who was well-favoured when she was young; it's high time I took
after her, if I'm ever going to."

"No living aunt ever looked as you do now," Kitty will mutter, shaking her
head. "I don't know what to think. I'm half afraid of you."

To tell the truth, she's more than half afraid of me, and I delight in
mystifying her all I can.

But the strangest thing of all, the most ridiculous thing, considering his
age, the oddest thing when one remembers that he himself is its creator--
Professor Darmstetter is half in love with the beauty he has made; he
would be, if he might, the gray and withered Pygmalion of my Galatea!



CHAPTER VII.


THE COMING OF THE LOVER.

December 15.

Really, I don't know which is the more aggravating, John Burke or Kitty.
Such a battle as I've had with them to-day!