Lady Baltimore

quiet waves that ripple round her Southern front, speak in the church-bells on Sunday morning, and breathe not only in the soft salt air, but in the perfume of every gentle, old-fashioned rose that b

in gray moss, brooding with memories! W

with it in my mind, the quiet and strange romance which I saw happen, and came finally to share in. Why it is that my Aunt no longer wishes to know either the boy or the girl, or even to hear their names mentioned, you shall learn at

e in this name, a fitness to my

twelve, it was my habit to leave my Fanning researches for a while, and lunch at the Exchange upon chocolate and sandwiches most delicate in savor. As, one day, I was luxuriously biting one of these, I heard his voice and what he was saying. Both the voice and the interesting order he was giving caused me, at my small table, in the dim back of the room, to stop and watch him where he stood in the light at the counter to the right of the entrance door. Young he was, very young, twenty-two or three at the most, and as he stood, with hat in hand, speaking to the pretty girl behind the counter, his

ost had; but the blood in his cheeks

he counter: "We don't expe

be rather particularly engaged." His

. You will leave your address.

round one. Like this, you know!" His arms embrace

her side of the counter; there was, at any rate,

ery best. Each person would eat a pound, wouldn't they? Or would two be nearer? I think I had better

e found there; but with a customer, never. She always took my orders, and my money, and served me, with a silence and a propriety that have become, with ordinary shopkeepers, a lost art. They talk to one indeed! But this slim girl was a lady, and

e you want that?"

e? Yes, that i

acquainted with its price) and the cost of that rich article which convention has prescribed as the cake for weddings; at any rate, swift, sudden delicacy of feeling prevented her explaining any more to him, for she saw how it was: his means w

n speaking. "That's all,

ing back she, too, mu

loudly from my table: "But he hasn

d there he was at the door himself, rushing back. He, too, had remembered. It was almost a collision, an

iately. "I am sorry to be so carel

ou have given us more time than we need." She put complete, impersonal business into her

profile. Aunt Carola would have embraced her--and I should have liked to do so myself. She could not stand the idea of my having, after all these days of official reserve that she had placed between us, startled her into that rush to the door annihilated her dignity at a blow. So did I finish my sandwiches beneath her invisible but eloquent fire. What affair of mine was the cake? And what sort of impertinent, meddlesome person was I, shrieking out my suggestions to people with whom I had no acquaintance? These w

u please, of Lady Baltimore,"

ting second she replied, "Certainly," in her fit Regul

ng with Lady Baltimore. Oh, my goodness! Did you ever taste it? It's all soft, and it's

e to speak aloud, and with my mouth f

pliment." Then she walked straight back to my table. "I can't help it," she said, laughing still, and her delightful, insolent no

very agreeable t

th you for making me ridiculous. But you have admired my cake with such enthusiasm that you

ry much astonished that y

known all about

. I could easily misspell, if I chose; but how, even then, could I, for instance, make you hear her way of saying "about"? "Abo

about you," she repeated wi

ind telli

. "This place is deat

on the instant, enlighten me. "Th

you not heard ladies

led her words.

no

dull of me! Ladies

rolina archives at the library--and then that notebook you bring marked you out the

me!" s

ty for a moment interrupted her, before she continued, always mocking and always sweet: "Kings Port cannot boast intelligence offices for servants; but if you want to know the character and occupation of your friends, come to the Exchange!" How I wish I could gi

ing the small debt for my lunch I asked: "Since this is the proper place

And I thought you were quite a clev

you're quite a clever Reb--I

ouldn't you see that

erly ladies entered, the girl behind the counter stiffened to primness in a flash, and