By Kibesillah [pp. 540-552]

BY KIBESILLAH.
mother, but directly opposite Mr. Kim brough, and the young man proceeded
to converse with her after the manner of
Southern youths, while his cousins mo nopolized the elder lady.
Arthur was not particularly given to
the paying of broad compliments, and
on this occasion he was conscious of
nothing more than a desire to be civil.
But there is a suggestion of personal
flattery in the common courtesy of the
South that is rarely seen in the manner
of Western men; and Mrs. Hatherton at
once put the young man down in her
mental blue books as a fortune hunter of
the worst type. Kate, it might be presumed, however, could not be wholly of
her mother's way of thinking, for she
was soon smiling brightly across the
table and talking more than she usually
did with strangers. Arthur was charmed,
and from that hour Mrs. Preston was annoyed by no further attentions paid by
her cousin to Miss Rivers, of Napa Valley.
Mrs. Hatherton was a shrewd woman,
in spite of her present inability to guide
the course of events, and her knowledge
of human nature was sufficient to restrain her from any very open opposition
to Kate's acquaintance with the Prestons
and their cousin. She had long since
come to the conclusion that the success
of her plan depended on the girl's continuing unconsciousness that the conventual vows were in any manner to be
forced upon her; and an arbitrary limitation of her freedom now might counteract all the influences that had hitherto
been brought to bear. It might be better, perhaps, to leave the Springs at
once; but the waters were undeniably
beneficial, and Mrs. Hatherton was not
prepared to sacrifice a positive good for a
merely possible evil. She would keep
Kate with her as much as she could, and
make as little of the affair as possible.
Kate and Arthur, on the contrary,
were disposed to make the most of the
golden summer days. To her it was a
first experience, and Kimbrough's habit ual earnestness was more in accord with
her simple, direct manner than the usual
conventional inconsequence of society
men could have proved. He in turn fan cied that the girl's perfect simplicity was
her greatest charm; but perhaps her
blue-gray eyes and dimpled cheek were
more potent than he knew. Mrs. Preston confessed that she found her a trifle
slow and unresponsive.
"I can't see how you can say that,"
he remonstrated. "She is not'catchy',
if that means to be up to the newest
slang and the latest sensational novel.
She is plainly as unsophisticated in the
ways of the world as though she had
never left her convent. But if you had
ever watched her face light up when a
new idea is presented to her, you could
not call her unresponsive."
Mrs. Preston laughed. "Are you presenting many new ideas to her, Arthur?"
she asked. But her cousin refused to
answer.
One afternoon, several weeks after
their coming, while Mrs. Hatherton took
her indispensable invalid's nap, Kate was
persuaded by Mr. Kimbrough to walk
with him over an old stage road long
since abandoned for a shorter cut to the
new railroad. They did not talk a great
deal, but their long silences were not so
significant as such lapses of speech between two young persons generally are;
for the girl's training had never encouraged in her over-free expression of her
thoughts and sentiments, and the hush
of the summer stillness was upon them
both. All at once she stopped and
pointed eagerly up the road in front of
her. A mountain deer disappeared
among the manzanita bushes.
"They are such beautiful creatures,"
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