t I often wondered, pondering on that
wonderful man's penetration and insight, if, in some lapse of
consciousness, I had not really stolen his cigar case!

GOLLY AND THE CHRISTIAN,

OR

THE MINX AND THE MANXMAN

By H-LL C--NE

BOOK I

Golly Coyle was the only granddaughter of a vague and somewhat simple
clergyman who existed, with an aunt, solely for Golly's epistolary
purposes. There was, of course, intermediate ancestry,--notably a dead
mother who was French, and therefore responsible for any later
naughtiness in Golly,--but they have no purpose here. They lived in the
Isle of Man. Golly knew a good deal of Man, for even at the age of
twelve she was in love with John Gale--only son of Lord Gale, who was
connected with the Tempests. Gales, however, were frequent and
remarkable along the coast, so that it was not singular that one day
she found John "coming on" on a headland where she was sitting. His
dog had "pointed" her. "It's exceedingly impolite to point to anything
you want," said Golly. Touched by this, and overcome by a strange
emotion, John Gale turned away and went to Canada. Slight as the
incident was, it showed that inborn chivalry to women, that desire for
the Perfect Life, that intense eagerness to incarnate Christianity in
modern society, which afterward distinguished him. Golly loved him!
For all that, she still remained a "tomboy" as she was,--robbing
orchards, mimicking tramps and policemen, buttering the stairs and the
steps of houses, tying kettles to dogs' tails, and marching in a white
jersey, with the curate's hat on, through the streets of the village.
"Gol dern my skin!" said the dear old clergyman, as he tried to emerge
from a surplice which Golly had stitched together; "what spirits the
child DO have!" Yet everybody loved her! And when John Gale returned
from Canada, and looked into her big blue eyes one day at church, small
wonder that he immediately went off again to Paris, and an extended
Continental sojourn, with a serious leaning to theology! Golly bore
his absence meekly but characteristically; got a boat, disported like a
duck in the water, attempted to elope with a boy appropriately named
Drake, but encountered a half gale at sea and a whole Gale in John on a
yacht, who rescued them both. Convinced now that there was but one way
to escape from his Fate--Golly!--John Gale took holy orders and at once
started for London. As he stood on the deck of the steamer