card, escaping from between them, fluttered down upon the floor. He
picked it up and restored it to her, with the book.

"There!" she answered, giving the card back again, "there is what I
mean! Must I give you your own card in order to acquaint you with your
own business?"

Mr. Bartlett looked at it for a second in blank amazement; then, like a
flash of lightning, the whole course of the misunderstanding flashed
across his mind. He burst--I am ashamed to say--into a tremendous
paroxysm of mingled tears and laughter: were he not so strong and
masculine a man, I should say, "hysterics." In vain he struggled to
find words. At every attempt a fresh convulsion of laughter seized
him, and tears, mingled with rain, flowed down his cheeks.

Bertha began to be alarmed at this strange and unexpected convulsion.
"Professor Hurlbut!" said she, "what is the matter?"

"Professor Hurlbut!" he repeated, in a faint, scarcely audible scream;
then, striving to suppress his uncontrollable fit of delight and
comical surprise, he sank upon the bench at her feet, shaking from head
to foot with the effort.

"A-a-ah!" he at last panted forth, as if heaving an atlas-load from his
heart, and stood erect before her. With his face still flushed and
eyes sparkling he was as handsome an embodiment of youth and life as
one could wish to see. In two words he explained to her the mistake,
on learning which Bertha blushed deeply, saying: "How could I ever have
supposed it!" And then, reflecting upon the inferences which could be
drawn from such an expression, became suddenly shy and silent.

Of course she accepted Mr. Bartlett's escort to the hotel when the rain
was over, and he was presented to the agonised mother, who hailed him
as a deliverer of her daughter from untold dangers, and privately
remarked, afterward, to the latter: "Upon my word, a very nice young
man, my dear!" Dick's commendation was no less emphatic though
differently expressed: "A good fellow! well made in the shoulders and
flanks: fine action, but wants a little training!"

By this time, ladies, you have probably guessed the conclusion. My
story would neither be agreeable nor true (I am relating facts) if they
were not married, and did not have two children, and live happy ever
after. Married they were, in the course of time, and happy they also
are, for I visit them now and then.

One thing I had nearly forgotten. When Mrs. Bartlett chooses to tease
her husband