Year: 1873

pretty soon, she would not have allowed
the old man to marry again not that he
was an old man then. The second Mrs.
Heybolt was stranger-as pretty woman
as was ever seen in Mulgrave, and very
accomplished. When she was first mar
ried there used to be good deal going on
there in the summertime but after
while Mrs. Heybolt did not seem to care
about going out herself or having any one
come to see her. In fact, Captain Drake,
without meaning it, impressed upon Carl
toms mind rather melancholy picture of
pretty, lively, highspirited girl wilted
by slow degrees in a shadowed and un-
friendly soil into patient weariness of
life. Mrs. Heybolt's sole amusement dur
ing the latter years of her life was instruct
ing her little girl. Catherine Heybolt was
thirteen when her mother died, and she
had been since then rather rebellious
charge upon her stepsister's hands. No
one knew much about Catherine. She
did not come to the village. Selma would
not allow it.


Carlton asked one more question. Was
Mr.. Heybolt called a rich man? Captain
Drake estimated that he was not worth
cent less than seventy-hve thousand dollars.
This was pretty fair guess on Captain
Drake's part, for the worth of the whole
property had never exceeded fifty thou
sand.


Carlton did not leave Mulgrave the next
day on the contrary, he announced that
he would stay an indefinite time, and his
trunk arrived by express the morning af-
ter. He had found an attraction in Null
grave, and as his summer tour was left to
the guidance of the merest chance, he had
no plans to change and no engagements to
break.


Catherine Heybolt thought it was alto
gether accident that she should meet the
stranger again and again in her wood ex-
cursions. She was not quite sure whether
there was anything wrong in it, but she
saw no way of avoiding it, unless she staid
in the house, which she could not do.
These long rambles had been her only es-
cape from very dreary life, and it was
scarcely to be expected that she should re-
linquish them, just when dangerous
charm was added to them. Selma had
always objected to her running about the
woods like tomboy, but Selma objected
to everything she did. If Selma knew of
her new friend, she would object to him.
1t was an unforgotten grievance to Kitty
that Harriet Grey, the only girl she had
ever had any acquaintance with at all, had
been sent home by Selma, ON some pretext
of il-conduct, and herself forbidden ever
to go again to Mrs. Grey's. 1t would be
the same with Mr.. Carlton, and worse
This was Kitty's idea in the very begin
ming of these meetings. Afterwards a very
different and more mature feeling sealed
her lips. Selina's anger was no longer q
terror to her E; for some time, as she grew
older, it had been growing less terror
and more an annoyance. Now she was in
different to 1t in any manner save that she
could not bear to hear Selma talk upon the
subject, she thou ght.


AS to what profession Mr.. Carlton fol
lowed, Kitty knew that also; and she
thought there was no living author quite
equal in brilliance to him. Captain Drake
knew also by this time the meaning of the
little enigma that Mr.. Carlton had put
upon him. The public did not know, as
it followed that series OF sparkling articles,
From Pineknots to Peanuts" contribu-
ted by "Charleville" to leading journal,
that they were all written in the quiet ho-
tel at Mulgrave, Why notP He had seen
the place and the people, and undergone
the experiences, and if it was not exactly
in the time and order in which he present,
ed them to the world, what matter did it
make? They wanted pleasant reading rath-
er than matterof-fact narrative, and they
got it. Kitty had hint of Cartoons his
tory also. He had father and mother
living, and several brothers and sisters.
Being rich mans son, he had lived as if
he was rich man himself, quite regardless
of the fact that his fathers income had
other claimants upon 1t besides himself,
until after repeated warnings he had been
abandoned 60 his own resources to meet
his further needs. Whereupon he took
from his napkin an idle talent, which had
heretofore only served him for amusement,
and after furnishing 1t up, he found it had
an appreciable value; and although he did
not live quite as he had done before, he
was free of the world, and "in some re-
spects wiser and better man." lie said
Tyf.a u