y don't you begin? We're waiting for you."

"Pardon me," he answered, "I was not aware of it. Well, since you are
inexorable, I'll try. I will not attempt anything in this New World,
which you all know so much more about than I do, for then there'd be
every chance of my being heavily fined. But if you want a story of Old
England, perhaps on that ground I can barely escape my forfeit."

"We shall be delighted," said Miss Royal, courteously, for Katie, to
whom she saw that he was speaking, was at the moment claimed by
Archdale; he was saying something to her in a low voice, and she gave
him willing attention.

Only a flash in the narrator's eyes as he began showed that he noticed
this.

CHAPTER II.

OPPORTUNITY.

"Once upon a time, then," he said, "in Scotland, no matter in what part,
there dwelt two disconsolate people. They ought to have been very happy,
for they were lovers, but, as you may have noticed, lovers are happy
only under the condition that love runs smooth, and here it was
extremely rough. The suitor was of ancient family and poor, the lady was
charming, and wilful--and an heiress? You are all waiting to hear me say
that--no, she was poor, too. And so you see that a doubling of
impecuniosity was quite impossible, for poverty rolls up fast in a
geometrical progression. But the lovers had no such scruples. It's a
romantic story enough if I could tell it to you in detail."

"And why not?" cried Katie, whose interest was making him wish that
were possible.

"I should have to go back for generations, and tell you of family feuds
as old as the families themselves, a Montague and Capulet state of
affairs, although each family had so much respect for the golden
amenities of life that its possession by the other would have softened
the asperity of feeling. But each was poor,--poor, I mean, for people in
that station.

"The lady, as I said, was a beauty; the gentleman had extra will enough
when it was roused to make up for the absence of beauty, although,
indeed, the lady was not lacking in that quality either, and so,
opposition made them only more determined to have their own way. It was
impossible to run away,--she was too well guarded; defiance was the only
thing, and I must confess that from what I knew of them both, I think
they enjoyed it. The Capulets, as I will call them, were dissenters, the
Montagues belonged to the Established Church. Now, the Capulets were
very zealous, and at this tim