at
I'm not found out.'

"'That ought to teach you not to tell any,' I said, rather severely.

"'Indeed I don't, Miss Mabel--unless it's about some foolishness like
this. I'm not a big story teller--don't think I am.'

"'I shall not unless you force me to,' I answered. 'Come, we must find
your mistress now.'

"I walked quickly on, and she followed me in silence. Once I glanced
back at her--there was an expression on her face which puzzled me, yes,
almost made me afraid. I could imagine Clytemnestra holding her midnight
watch, with a face like that--Lady Macbeth waiting for her husband's
return, with eyes like those--oh, I had grown so fanciful and silly
during those past days.

"We found Mr. James Harrington with his mother, who was just driving
away in the carriage.

"When it came back, I saw him return to the Eatons, who seemed to occupy
him entirely. Feeling myself completely unregarded, I wandered off by
myself, interested in the strange people that surrounded me.

"I looked about and found that I had lost sight of the whole party. I
was not frightened, because the fair grounds were in full view, and I
could find my way back easily enough, but I was a little amazed to think
that my presence had been of so little consequence to the gentlemen of
the party, that I had been permitted to steal away unnoticed.

"I walked on among the tents--nobody looked at me unpleasantly or spoke
rudely to me, and when my first feeling of pique had subsided, I was not
sorry to have an opportunity of examining more closely these strange and
incomprehensible people who, during so many ages, have kept up their
distinctive manners and customs, as much a mystery now as when they
first made their appearance among the inhabitants of Europe.

"Such picturesque looking men, lazily basking in the noon-tide sun--such
groups of lovely children, that would have sent Murillo into
ecstacies--such beautiful girls, whose every movement had a willowy,
sensuous grace that the women of no other people ever possessed--weird,
witch-like old crones, with such depths of wickedness in their fiery
eyes, that in looking at them one could easily have believed in the
old-time evidence of those who made bargains for their souls with the
Evil One. On I wandered, sometimes stopping to admire the children, or
speak a few words to the young girls.

"While I was thus occupied, James Harrington joined me, and began
speaking of his mother.

"'She is getting wo