THE SIX KITTENS. 53

About seven o’clock the same evening an attentive observer
might have noticed Miss Rose emerging from her door very
quietly, and making the best of her way to the green fields that
bordered the sea-coast close by. An ill-natured person would
have said that Miss Rose had taken especial pains with her toilet,
and that she carried her parasol with a lack-a-daisical air; but
Rose herself, at her last peep in the glass, had thought that she
looked very nicely indeed; and so it would appear thought Ensign
Squeaker (of the Household Pigade), who, with his regimental
sword by his side, and his pocket telescope in his hand, sauntered
along the pathway, merely to enjoy the beauty of the evening, and
inhale the fresh breezes from the ocean. How it happened that
Young Squeaker and Miss Rose met at the corner of the cliff, just
as the village clock struck the half-past seven, no one knows;
certain only it is that they did meet; and that after the interchange
of the usual compliments, Miss Rose accepted Mr. Squeaker’s
proffered arm, and that the pair wandered about by the sea-shore
until the moon rose; and Miss Rose, in great trepidation at find-
ing it so late, desired her companion to escort her home. Nor is
it known what Mr. Squeaker said when he bade a fond adieu to
his dear Rose, nor for how long after Rose sat in her arbour in
the garden and watched the bats flitting across the moon.

It was noticed by the sisters that Rose was very quiet all the
next day, and that at times a tear stood in the corner of her eye,
which she would wipe away, sighing. Many were the sly allu-
sions to the note of the previous afternoon and the long evening
walk, and no one tormented poor Rose with her insinuations
more than Paulina, who was for some cause in a most unusual
flow of spirits. After tea, Rose took down her treasured volume,

H