The Cairo bulletin., 1904-08-16
CHAPTER VII.
IN THE OLD wATcH-TowER.

sea. He knew but little OF family life
therefore, and even less OF children.
Through his connections and influence
he was not without some acquaintance
with the high life of the court OF
England--a somewhat unusual priyi-
lege for young naval officer-and he
easily moved in the first circles in
America when his duties permitted
him a rare visit there. Mingling in
this good society he had acquired an
ease and manner which, added to his
native breeding and instructive dig
nifty enabled him to bear himself
gracefully wherever he found himself
but he had no experience with young
girls of the age of the young coun-
tess
Fortunately his was sunny. lively
disposition. fun of laugh ter and hui
NOR. which made it not difficult for
him to enter into the spirit of the
play In accordance with his new
friends faneies. He had been attracted
In some strange way to the little do
Rohan from the first moment he had
seen her-nay, from that morning hour
when he had only heard her in the
earden-and the romantic friendship
which she had instituted between
them, and upon which he had entered
to please her and as a pastime for a
prisoner, unconsciously assumed per-
manent aspect
He took part in the play with zest
which surprised him, and the more he
was thrown in contact with the
strange and peculiar mind of the girl
the more she interested him. She
was a singular mixture OF the young
and the old. the very childish and the
very wise She stood, as it were,
poised halfway between the intel
lectual level of Josette. her playmate.
on the cne hand, and of the courtly old |
marquis, her preceptor and guide, on |
the other
She was too old to play at dolls, he |
thought, too young to play at love. /
And yet she had done the one and was
doing the other although the "ador-
able Toto" had been neglected of late |
for the more adorable Philip. Shrewd-
ness, wit, and common sense mingled
in equal measure with unbounded
credulity and the most romantic mag
ination. And her impetuosity and
abandon were as evident as were her
wisdom or her innocence.
Grafton kissed the little brown hand
so often that he rather grew to like 1t,
Every day brought him a different
|ove-token of some sort and a new
and imaginary task to be achieved.
But Mademoiselle Anne at last tired
)f simulation-the most obstinate i'm
igination will weary in the end-and
determined to endeavor to impart a
ouch of realism to the pretty game
One day, therefore, she took him
nto one of the rooms of the high
over. the keep or watch-tower, the
oldest part of the chateau, which he
lad never visited before. There she
old him a tale of one of the ancient
aides of Rohan who had lover who
anne from an alien and antagonlstic
amily, who gained access to her
hamber by climbing in some strange
way the wall or face Of the tower,
ntil he reached the oriel window be- ,
ore them. He was finally caught and
illed by the lords of the house on
he threshold of the very room in
,hich they were standing she said,
nd she wondered IL Sir Philip could,
r would, have done that thing. {
Let us go to the window and look !
ut, your little ladyship, and we viii !
ee," answered the pseudo knight |
ally. 81 am a sailor. can climb al
lost anything that any one else can S
scend." [
Together and hand in hand the two )
epped out on the little balcony over '
oking the sea- Just outside the oriel |
indow, the wall of the castle, follow
* the coast line, turned sharply, S
aking a narrow re-entrant angle \
here 1t Joined the round tower. The
'wer aud the wall were built of rough {
one and their surfaces were much 5
oxen by jutting projections. The s
all and tower sloped slightly inward I
ON the base to the top. c.
Philip gravely surveyed the stone Il
Irface of the weather-beaten tower
weeping below the little platform on Il
hich he stood. and made up his mind it
at a daring climber taking advan- il
ge of the irregularities and pro-
ctions in the stone. and favored by v,
e slope and the angle, might. IL he N
Id cool head, gain the balcony. pro- le
ded no one opposed his ascent. In h
ed, since the Baron de Croisic, the ST
fortunate lover of the legend had a,
me so. he felt sure that he himself a,
uld accomplish the feat-given a q
ficient incentive. OF course At the 20
OF OF he tower lay the little bay a.
Oxen OF before. and in the bay a
lall bost was moored.
He looked again and more carefully.
aning far out over the wall. and
tn the trained observation Of a
iIor to whom the minutest indica-
m NAV be of paramount value, he
ok careful note Of the several pro-
.ting stones. the slope of the walls.
d rapidly mapped out series Of
1vements by which the feat could be