ampire
who mocked her with her vanished "C."

"Now that the--the mystery is solved, and I--and we have met, I don't
think there will be much amusement in talking over the wire."

Somewhat to her surprise, and not at all flattering to her vanity, he
answered, without a remonstrance,

"No! I don't know as there will!"

"Perhaps he doesn't like my looks any better than I do his!" was
Nattie's natural and indignant thought at this quiet reception of her
hint. And if anything had been necessary--which it certainly was not--to
her utter repudiation of him, this would have sufficed for the purpose.

"You mentioned this morning you thought of leaving X n. Do you expect to
go soon?" she asked, catching at the idea that a few hours ago had
caused so much alarm, with a hope that he might be about to vanish from
her world finally and forever. But even as she spoke, the difference of
the now and then smote her like a pain.

"Did I say that?" he said, with a look that she could not understand, as
if for some secret reason, he was so well pleased with himself, he could
hardly avoid laughing outright. "Oh! well! I was only fooling!"

Nattie's face fell, but, catching at the opportunity to convey the
impression that in her opinion they had not been very friendly, after
all, she said,

"I suppose no one really means what they say on the wire. I am sure _I_ do
not!"

"But we mean what we say now," he replied, with an insinuating smile.
"Next time I come we will be more sociable. But we've have had a nice
talk, ain't we?"

For a moment the repulsive person before her overcame the remembrance of
the lost "C," and Nattie replied, sarcastically,

"I trust the talk has not been too much of an exercise for your brain!"

He looked at her doubtfully, and then laughed. "You are sort of a queer
girl, ain't you? I wish though, I could stay and buzz you longer, but I
have only time to get my train, so good-by."

"Good-by," said Nattie, betraying all her relief at his departure in the
sudden animation of her voice, something so different from her preceding
manner that he could but notice it, and he turned, looked at her, as if
a suspicion of its true cause penetrated his mind at last, frowned, and
then with that former look she did not understand crossing his face,
nodded and ran for the depot, coming into violent collision with a fat
Dutchman, looking perplexedly for a barber's shop. And thus the red
hair, the bear's grease, the sham