I have allowed myself
to--to--fl--"

"What,--not flirt!" he said, controlling his emotion as it were by a
sudden pressure inward from his surface. "And you said only the day
before yesterday that you hadn't flirted in your life!"

"Yes, I did; and that was a wicked story! I have let another love me,
and--"

"Good G--! Well, I'll forgive you,--yes, if you couldn't help it,--yes,
I will!" said the now dismal Dick. "Did you encourage him?"

"O,--I don't know,--yes--no. O, I think so!"

"Who was it?" A pause. "Tell me!"

"Mr. Shiner."

After a silence that was only disturbed by the fall of an apple, a long-
checked sigh from Dick, and a sob from Fancy, he said with real
austerity--

"Tell it all;--every word!"

"He looked at me, and I looked at him, and he said, 'Will you let me show
you how to catch bullfinches down here by the stream?' And I--wanted to
know very much--I did so long to have a bullfinch! I couldn't help that
and I said, 'Yes!' and then he said, 'Come here.' And I went with him
down to the lovely river, and then he said to me, 'Look and see how I do
it, and then you'll know: I put this birdlime round this twig, and then I
go here,' he said, 'and hide away under a bush; and presently clever
Mister Bird comes and perches upon the twig, and flaps his wings, and
you've got him before you can say Jack'--something; O, O, O, I forget
what!"

"Jack Sprat," mournfully suggested Dick through the cloud of his misery.

"No, not Jack Sprat," she sobbed.

"Then 'twas Jack Robinson!" he said, with the emphasis of a man who had
resolved to discover every iota of the truth, or die.

"Yes, that was it! And then I put my hand upon the rail of the bridge to
get across, and--That's all."

"Well, that isn't much, either," said Dick critically, and more
cheerfully. "Not that I see what business Shiner has to take upon
himself to teach you anything. But it seems--it do seem there must have
been more than that to set you up in such a dreadful taking?"

He looked into Fancy's eyes. Misery of miseries!--guilt was written
there still.

"Now, Fancy, you've not told me all!" said Dick, rather sternly for a
quiet young man.

"O, don't speak so cruelly! I am afraid to tell now! If you hadn't been
harsh, I was going on to tell all; now I can't!"

"Come, dear Fancy, tell: come. I'll forgive; I must,--by heaven and
earth, I must, whether I will or no; I love you so!"

"Well, when I put my hand on the