Kit was deeply impressed by this conversation. He was resolved, when the
time came, to assert his rights, and lay claim to his dead father's
property.

CHAPTER XXXV.

ON THE TRAPEZE.

Kit was on pleasant relations with his fellow performers. Indeed, he was
a general favorite, owing to his obliging disposition and pleasant
manners. He took an interest in their acts as well as his own, and in
particular had cultivated an intimacy with Louise Lefroy, the trapeze
performer. He had practiced on the trapeze in the gymnasium, and had
acquired additional skill under the tuition of Mlle. Lefroy.

"Some time you will make an engagement as a trapeze performer,
Christopher," said the lady to him one day.

"No," answered Kit, shaking his head.

"You wouldn't be afraid?"

"No; I think I would make a very respectable performer; but I don't mean
to travel with the circus after this season, unless I am obliged to."

"Why should you be obliged to?"

"Because I have my living to earn."

"It is a pity," said Mlle. Lefroy. "You seem cut out for a circus
performer."

"Do you like it, Mlle. Lefroy?"

The lady looked thoughtful.

"I have to like it," she said. "Besides, there is an excitement about
it, and I crave excitement."

"But wouldn't you rather have a home of your own?"

"Listen! I had a home of my own, but my husband was intemperate, and in
fits of intoxication would illtreat me and my boy."

"Then you have a boy?" said Kit, surprised.

"Yes; and I support him at a boarding school out of my professional
earnings, which are large."

"I am going to ask you another question, but you may not like to answer
it."

"Speak plainly."

"Your husband is living, is he not?"

"Yes."

"Does he know that you are a circus performer?"

"No; and I would not have him know for worlds."

"Would he feel sensitive about it?"

Mlle. Lefroy laughed bitterly.

"You don't know him, or you would not ask that question," she said. "He
would want to appropriate my salary. That is why I do not care to have
him know how I am earning the living which he ought to provide for me."

"I sympathize with you," said Kit, gently.

"Then you don't think any the worse of me because I am a trapeze
performer."

"Why should I? Am I not a circus performer also?"

"Yes; but it is different with you, being a man. You would not like to
think of your mother or sister in my position."

"No; I would not, yet I can imagine circumstance