A black-and-white sketch doesn't give any definite idea of this
charmer's charms, but sometime I'll fill it in--hair, sweet little hat,
gown, and eyes, all in golden brown, a cape of tawny sable slipping off
her arm, a knot of yellow primroses in her girdle, carved-oak
background, and the afternoon sun coming through a stained-glass window.
Great Jove! She had a most curious effect on me, that girl! I can't
explain it--very curious, altogether new, and rather pleasant. When one
of the choir-boys sang 'Oh for the wings of a dove!' a tear rolled out
of one of her lovely eyes and down her smooth brown cheek. I would have
given a large portion of my modest monthly income for the felicity of
wiping away that teardrop with one of my new handkerchiefs, marked with
a tremendous 'C' by my pretty sister.

An hour or two later they appeared again--the dragon, who answers to the
name of 'Aunt Celia,' and the 'nut-brown mayde,' who comes when she is
called 'Katharine.' I was sketching a ruined arch. The dragon dropped
her unmistakably Boston bag. I expected to see encyclopaedias and Russian
tracts fall from it, but was disappointed. The 'nut-brown mayde' (who
has been trained in the way she should go) hastened to pick up the bag
for fear that I, a stranger, should serve her by doing it. She was
punished by turning it inside out, and I was rewarded by helping her
gather together the articles, which were many and ill-assorted. My
little romance received the first blow when I found that she reads the
Duchess novels. I think, however, she has the grace to be ashamed of it,
for she blushed scarlet when I handed her 'A Modern Circe.' I could have
told her that such a blush on such a cheek would almost atone for not
being able to read at all, but I refrained. It is vexatious all the
same, for, though one doesn't expect to find perfection here below, the
'nut-brown mayde,' externally considered, comes perilously near it.
After she had gone I discovered a slip of paper which had blown under
some stones. It proved to be an itinerary. I didn't return it. I thought
they must know which way they were going; and as this was precisely what
I wanted to know, I kept it for my own use. She is doing the cathedral
towns. I am doing the cathedral towns. Happy thought! Why shouldn't we
do them together--we and Aunt Celia? A fellow whose mother and sister
are in America must have some feminine society!

I had only ten minutes to catch my train for Sali