"Ten years ago this very month," I exclaimed, "did my distinguished
self arrive at this venerable mansion. What a singular conjunction of
events! No doubt our horoscopes would reveal some strange entanglement
of destinies at this point. Perchance I, even I, was 'the star malign'
whose rising disturbed the harmonious movement of the spheres!"
"No doubt of it; the birth of a mouse once caused an earthquake, you
know."
"But could I have seen him? Did I arrive before he had left?"
"Oh, yes, very likely; but of course you can have no recollection of
him, such a chit as you were then."
"What was his name?" I cried, eagerly. A long-silent chord of memory
began to give forth a vague, uncertain murmur.
"Oh, no matter, Kate. I would a little rather you shouldn't know. It
doesn't affect the moral of the story, which was all I had in view in
relating it."
"A plague take the moral, Aunty! The romance is what I want; and
what's that without 'the magic of a name'?"
"Excuse me."
"Tell me his Christian name, then,--just for a peg to hang my ideas
on; that is, if it's meat for romance.
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