"Perhaps you can pipe a tune upon it," she said, dipping

the paddle tentatively.

"You put me under great obligations," I declared.

"Are all the girls at St. Agatha's as amiable?"

"I should say not! I'm a great exception,-and-I

really shouldn't be talking to you at all! It's against

the rules! And we don't encourage smoking."

"The chaplain doesn't smoke, I suppose."

"Not in chapel; I believe it isn't done! And we

rarely see him elsewhere."

Advertisement..

She had idled with the paddle so far, but now lifted

her eyes and drew back the blade for a long stroke.

"But in the wood-this morning-by the wall!"

I hate myself to this day for having so startled her.

The poised blade dropped into the water with a splash;

she brought the canoe a trifle nearer to the wharf with

an almost imperceptible stroke, and turned toward me

with wonder and dismay in her eyes.

"So you are an eavesdropper and detective, are you?

I beg that you will give your master my compliments!

I really owe you an apology; I thought you were a gentleman!"

she exclaimed with withering emphasis, and

dipped her blade deep in flight.

I called, stammering incoherently, after her, but her

light argosy skimmed the water steadily. The paddle

rose and fell with trained precision, making scarcely a

ripple as she stole softly away toward the fairy towers

of the sunset. I stood looking after her, goaded with

self-contempt. A glory of yellow and red filled the west.

Suddenly the wind moaned in the wood behind the line

of cottages, swept over me and rippled the surface of the

lake. I watched its flight until it caught her canoe and

I marked the flimsy craft's quick response, as the shaken

waters bore her alert figure upward on the swell, her

blade still maintaining its regular dip, until she disappeared

behind a little peninsula that made a harbor near

the school grounds.

The red tam-o'-shanter seemed at last to merge in the

red sky, and I turned to my canoe and paddled cheerlessly

home.




Most Popular