blame me for not troubling
you with forebodings about storm and tempest, which might have prevented
the pleasure you promised yourself in drinking tea, or perhaps a lesson
in Armenian, though you pretend to dislike the latter?'

'My dislike is not pretended,' said Belle; 'I hate the sound of it, but I
love my tea, and it was kind of you not to wish to cast a cloud over my
little pleasures; the thunder came quite time enough to interrupt it
without being anticipated--there is another peal--I will clear away, and
see that my tent is in a condition to resist the storm; and I think you
had better bestir yourself.'

Isopel departed, and I remained seated on my stone, as nothing belonging
to myself required any particular attention; in about a quarter of an
hour she returned, and seated herself upon her stool.

'How dark the place is become since I left you,' said she; 'just as if
night were just at hand.'

'Look up at the sky,' said I; 'and you will not wonder; it is all of a
deep olive. The wind is beginning to rise; hark how it moans among the
branches, and see how their tops are bending; it brings dust on its
wings--I felt some fall on my face; and what is this, a drop of rain?'

'We shall have plenty anon,' said Belle; 'do you hear? it already begins
to hiss upon the embers; that fire of ours will soon be extinguished.'

'It is not probable that we shall want it,' said I, 'but we had better
seek shelter: let us go into my tent.'

'Go in,' said Belle, 'but you go in alone; as for me, I will seek my
own.'

'You are right,' said I, 'to be afraid of me; I have taught you to
decline master in Armenian.'

'You almost tempt me,' said Belle, 'to make you decline mistress in
English.'

'To make matters short,' said I, 'I decline a mistress.'

'What do you mean?' said Belle, angrily.

'I have merely done what you wished me,' said I, 'and in your own style;
there is no other way of declining anything in English, for in English
there are no declensions.'

'The rain is increasing,' said Belle.

'It is so,' said I; 'I shall go to my tent; you may come if you please; I
do assure you I am not afraid of you.'

'Nor I of you,' said Belle; 'so I will come. Why should I be afraid? I
can take my own part; that is--'

We went into the tent and sat down, and now the rain began to pour with
vehemence. 'I hope we shall not be flooded in this hollow,' said I to
Belle. 'There is no fear of that,' said Belle; 'the wandering