a word, and at last with evident care
selected, "magnificent." "He was magnificent," she repeated
emphatically, "and she saw him first on horseback when she was out
riding. Her horse became frightened by one of the animals in the circus,
and he caught it and stopped it. It began that way, and then one night
she stole out of the house after her family had gone to bed, and they
ran away and were married. I think she was right," she added
thoughtfully, "but then I reckon--I mean I suppose it is in my blood to
take risks."

She looked up at him and he responded. "But where did you learn to see
things like this, and to put them into words? Not in a circus?"

"I told you I couldn't remember the circus. Mother was in one, and
though Father never told me how he fell in love with her--he never talks
of her--I think it must have been when he went back to see the people.
He always took an interest in them and tried to help them. He does
still. Even now, if anybody belonging to a circus asks him for
something, he never refuses him. When he was twelve years old somebody
took him away and sent him to school, but he always says he never
learned anything at school except misinformation about life. No books,
he says, ever taught him the truth except the Bible and 'Robinson
Crusoe.' He used to read me chapters of those every day--and he does
still when he has the time."

What a strange world it was! How full of colour and incident, how
drenched with the quality of the unusual!

"And what did you learn?" he asked.

"I?" She was speaking earnestly. "Oh, I learned a great many--no, a
multitude of things about life."

At this he broke into a laugh of pure delight. "With a special course of
instruction in maneuvers," he rejoined.

Though her smile showed perplexity she tossed back his innuendo with
defiance. "And by the time we meet again I shall have learned
about--strategy."

How ready she was to fence, and how quick with her attack! It was easy
to believe that there was Irish blood in her veins and an Irish sparkle
in her wit.

"Oh, then you will out-general me entirely! Isn't it enough to force me
to acknowledge your superior tactics?"

She appeared to scrutinize each separate letter. "Tactics? Have I been
using superior tactics without knowing it?"

"That I can't answer. Is there anything that has escaped your
instinctive understanding?"

She laughed softly. "Well, there's one thing you may be sure of. I'll
know a great