in the light
of all its possible solutions.

One thing Mr. Richard could not conceal from himself: Elsie had some new
cause of indifference, at least, if not of aversion to him. With the
acuteness which persons who make a sole business of their own interest
gain by practice, so that fortune-hunters are often shrewd where real
lovers are terribly simple, he fixed at once on the young man up at the
school where the girl had been going of late, as probably at the bottom
of it.

"Cousin Elsie in love!" so he communed with himself upon his lonely
pillow. "In love with a Yankee schoolmaster! What else can it be? Let
him look out for himself! He'll stand but a bad chance between us. What
makes you think she's in love with him? Met her walking with him. Don't
like her looks and ways;--she's thinking about something, anyhow. Where
does she get those books she is reading so often? Not out of our
library, that 's certain. If I could have ten minutes' peep into her
chamber now, I would find out where she got them, and what mischief she
was up to."

At that instant, as if some tributary demon had heard his wish, a shape
which could be none but Elsie's flitted through a gleam of moonlight into
the shadow of the trees. She was setting out on one of her midnight
rambles.

Dick felt his heart stir in its place, and presently his cheeks flushed
with the old longing for an adventure. It was not much to invade a young
girl's deserted chamber, but it would amuse a wakeful hour, and tell him
some little matters he wanted to know. The chamber he slept in was over
the room which Elsie chiefly occupied at this season. There was no great
risk of his being seen or heard, if he ventured down-stairs to her
apartment.

Mr. Richard Venner, in the pursuit of his interesting project, arose and
lighted a lamp. He wrapped himself in a dressing-gown and thrust his
feet into a pair of cloth slippers. He stole carefully down the stair,
and arrived safely at the door of Elsie's room.

The young lady had taken the natural precaution to leave it fastened,
carrying the key with her, no doubt,--unless; indeed, she had got out by
the window, which was not far from the ground. Dick could get in at this
window easily enough, but he did not like the idea of leaving his
footprints in the flower-bed just under it. He returned to his own
chamber, and held a council of war with himself.

He put his head out of his own window and looked at tha