The intervals when I was awake were when she came to the town on
a visit with her father, or, later, to finish her education at a
fashionable school. I mind the first time she came. I was at the
depot, and I rode with her on the back of their coach, unknown to
them. So I found out what hotel they were to stay at. I called the
next day, and purposely forgot my gloves. Heaven knows where I got
them from I probably borrowed them. Those were not days for gloves.
Her father sent them to my address the next day with a broad hint
that, having been neighborly, I needn't call again. He was getting
square for the ball. But my wife says that I was never good at taking
a hint, except in the way of business, as a reporter. I kept the
run of her all the time she was in the city. She did not always
see me, but I saw her, and that was enough. I watched her home from
school in the evening, and was content, though she was escorted
by a cadet with a pig-sticker at his side. He was her cousin, and
had given me his word that he cared nothing about her. He is a
commodore and King Christian's Secretary of Navy now.
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