always a faithful prince returning after long
years of wandering to the faithful princess. This was her one theme with
variations.

Sometimes she danced a minuet on the floor of the stable, with this
prince as imaginary partner, and Romanzo grew jealous of the bewitching
smiles and coquetries she bestowed upon the vacant air. At others she
would induce the youth to enter a box stall, telling him to make believe
he was at the theatre, and then, forgetting her role of princess, she
was again the Aileen Armagh of old--the child on the vaudeville stage,
dancing the coon dance with such vigor and abandonment that once, when
Aileen was nearly sixteen, Octavius, being witness to this flaunting
performance, took her severely to task for such untoward actions now
that she was grown up. He told her frankly that if Romanzo Caukins was
led astray in the future it would be through her carryings-on; at which
Aileen looked so dumbfoundered that Octavius at once perceived his
mistake, and retreated weakly from his position by telling her if she
wanted to dance like that, she'd better dance before him who understood
her and her intentions.

At this second speech Aileen stared harder than ever; then going up to
him and throwing an arm around his neck, she whispered:

"Tave, dear, are you mad with me? What have I done?--Is it really
anything so awful?"

Her distress was so unfeigned that Octavius, not being a woman,
comforted her by telling her he was a great botcher. Inwardly he cursed
himself for an A No. 1 fool. Aileen never danced the "coon" again, but
thereafter gave herself such grown-up and stand-off airs in Romanzo's
presence, that the youth proceeded in all earnest to lose both head and
heart to the girl's gracious blossoming womanhood. Octavius, observing
this, groaned in spirit, and henceforth held his tongue when he heard
the girl carolling her Irish love songs in the presence of the ingenuous
Caukins.

After this, the girl's exuberance of spirits and the sustaining inner
life of the imagination helped her wonderfully during the three
following years of patient waiting on a confirmed invalid. Of late, Mrs.
Champney had come to depend more and more on the girl's strong youth; to
demand more and more from her abundant vitality and lively spirits; and
Aileen, although recognizing the anomalous position she held in the
Champ-au-Haut household--neither servant nor child, neither companion
nor friend--gave of herself; gave as