He was turning. "Sieur Grandissime-' She seemed to tremble. He stood still. "Sieur Grandissime,'-her voice was 5 very tender,-'wad you' horry?' There was a great silence. "Sieur Grandissime, you know-teg a chair.' He hesitated a moment and then both 10 sat down. The servant repassed the door; yet when Aurora broke the silence, she spoke in English-having such hazardous things to say. It would conceal possible stammerings. "Sieur Grandissime-you know dad riz'en I-' She slightly opened her fan, looking down upon it, and was still. 15 She lifted her eyes with the evident determination to meet his own squarely, but it was too much; they fell as before; yet she went on speaking: 'An' w'en someboddie git'n' ti'ed livin' wid 'imsev an' big'n' to fill ole, an' wan' someboddie to teg de care of 'im an' wan' me to gid marri'd wid 'im-I thing 'e's in love to me.' Her fingers kept up a little shuffling with the fan. 'I thing I'm crezzy. I thing I muz be go'n' to die torecklie.' She looked up to the ceiling with large eyes, and then again at the fan in her lap, which continued its spreading and shutting. An' daz de riz'n, 'Sieur Grandissime.' She waited until it was certain he was about to answer, and then interrupted him nervously: 'You know,' Sieur Grandissime, id woon be righd! Id woon 'I have no rhight to ask the rheason,' 20 be de justiz to you! An' you de bez man said M. Grandissime. 'It is yo's-not mine.' She looked up suddenly and took a quick 3 breath, as if to resume, but her eyes fell before his, and she said, in a tone of halfsoliloquy: 'I've so mudge troub' wit dad hawt.' She lifted one little hand feebly to the 35 cardiac region, and sighed softly, with a dying languor. A M. Grandissime gave no response. vehicle rumbled by in the street below, and passed away. At the bottom of the 40 room, where a gilded Mars was driving into battle, a soft note told the half-hour. The lady spoke again. 'Id mague'-she sighed once more 'so strange, sometime' I thing I'm git'n' 45 crezzy.' Still he to whom these fearful disclosures were being made remained as silent and motionless as an Indian captive, and, after another pause, with its painful ac- 50 companiment of small sounds, the fair speaker resumed with more energy, as befitting the approach to an incredible cli max: 'Some day', 'Sieur Grandissime,-id 55 mague me fo'gid my hage! I thing I'm young!' I evva know in my life, 'Sieur Grandissime!' Her hands shook. A man w'at nevva wan' to gid marri'd wid noboddie in 'is life, and now trine to gid marri'd juz only to ripose de soul of 'is oncl'-' M. Grandissime uttered an exclamation of protest, and she ceased. 'I asked you,' continued he, with lowtoned emphasis, 'fo' the single and only rheason that I want you fo' my wife!' 'Yez,' she quickly replied; 'daz all. Daz wid I thing. An' I thing daz de rad weh to say, 'Sieur Grandissime. Bickause, you know, you an' me is too hole to talg aboud dad lovin', you know. An' you godd dad grade rizpeg fo' me, an' me I godd dad 'ighez rispeg fo' you; bud-' she clutched the fan and her face sank lower still-Bud-' she swallowed-shook her head-Bud-' She bit her lip; she could not go on. 'Aurora,' said her lover, bending forward and taking one of her hands. love you with all my soul.' 'I do She made a poor attempt to withdraw her hand, abandoned the effort, and looked up savagely through a pair of overflowing eyes, demanding: 'Mais, fo' w'y you di'n' wan' to sesso?' M. Grandissime smiled argumentatively 'I have said so a hundrhed times, in everhy way but in words.' She lifted her head proudly, and bowed like a queen. 'Mais, you see, 'Sieur Grandissime, you bin meg one mizteg.' 'Bud 't is corrhected in time,' exclaimed he, with suppressed but eager joyousness. "Sieur Grandissime,' she said with a tremendous solemnity, 'I'm verrie sawrie, mais-you spogue too lade.' 'No, no!" he cried, 'the correction 5 comes in time. Say that, lady: say that!' His ardent gaze beat hers once more down; but she shook her head. He ignored the motion. 'And you will corrhect yo' answeh; ah! 10 say that, too!' he insisted, covering the captive hand with both his own, and leaning forward from his seat. Mais, 'Sieur Grandissime, yo know, dad is so verrie unegspeg'.' 'Oh! unexpected!' 'Mais, I was thing all dad time id was Clotilde wad you—' She turned her face away and buried her mouth in her handkerchief. 'Ah!' he cried, 'mock me no mo', Aurora Nancanou !' He rose erect and held the hand firmly which she strove to draw away: 'Say the word, sweet lady; say the word!' She turned upon him suddenly, rose to her feet, was speechless an instant while her eyes flashed into his, and crying out: 'No!' burst into tears, laughed through Is them, and let him clasp her to his bosom. From The Grandissimes, 1880 FRANK RICHARD STOCKTON (1834-1902) The whimsical genius of Frank R. Stockton delighted greatly his own generation. At one time his unique sketch The Lady or the Tiger? was everywhere known and quoted, and for two decades his work was a regular part of the monthly magazine menu. Not so much is heard of Stockton now. The main facts of his biography are quickly told. He was a native of Philadelphia, though the greater part of his life was spent in New York City. He was an editor, at first on the Hearth and Home staff and then connected with Scribner's Monthly and with St. Nicholas. He was forty-five and the author of five juveniles before his Rudder Grange, 1879, called attention to him, but it was not till 1884 and his The Lady or the Tiger? that he was at all widely known. After that he wrote much, perhaps too much,-novels, short stories, extravaganzas,-unclassifiable studies in incongruity, all of it unlocalized, all of it without much of solid substance, all of it produced merely for entertainment. He is best classified, perhaps, with the humorists, though some of his short stories are significant. Stockton as much as any one prepared the way for O. Henry and the later school of short story makers, with their careful technique, their unconventional endings, their liveliness of humor, their quaint and unexpected conceits of situation, and their insistence that the reader be kept constantly alert and constantly surprised. THE PIE GHOSTTM I saw before me a great old-fashioned fireplace with some charred logs lying upon the iron andirons, and at one end of the hearth a pile of firewood. This was what we had come for. We fell to work, and in ten minutes a great fire was blazing and crackling, the wet wraps of the ladies were removed, and we all were 10 gathered around the hearth, which fortunately was large enough to accommodate the six of us. It is astonishing how the genial heat dried out our shoes and clothes and raised our spirits. The schoolmaster and the butcher sat at the corners of the fireplace, and they were very well placed indeed. The former took off his gown and hung it on a crane that extended from one side of the great fireplace. He wished to have it dry enough to put on when he went out. It was not probable that Mrs. Bodship would be rambling about the country at night, but he wanted to feel safe. Now, then,' said Doris, if we only had some good hot tea we ought to be perfectly happy.' Crabstairs. 'I, for one, am half famished.' 'You can have both tea and something to eat,' said Dolor Tripp. 'We have 5 used this kitchen as a storeroom for the things we buy in quantities. In that cupLoard is a box of tea, and there is sugar and salt and spices, and a barrel of flour.' 'We can't do anything with flour and salt without waiting ever so long,' said Doris. 'I feel as if I could eat them without baking,' said Lord Crabstairs. 'You need n't do that,' said Dolor 15 Tripp. I can go quietly to the other end of the house, where the pantry is. There is always something to eat there. But first let us boil the kettle. If you, sir, will move your gown a little farther to the 20 back of the crane, there is a kettle here which we can hang over the fire.' Under her directions the butcher, with as little noise as possible, pumped some water from a cistern under the kitchen, 25 and when the kettle was filled and over the fire the two ladies got down some cups, saucers, and a tea-pot from the shelves of a dresser which seemed to be filled with old-time pottery. Then Dolor Tripp started to go to the pantry. 'I will blow out the candle,' she said, 'and take it with And something to eat,' added Lord. 1 From The Merry Chanter, copyright by The Cen- 30 tury Co. me. Then I will light it when I get there. They are very hard to wake, but a light passing through the house might do it. You folks won't mind sitting here in the firelight?' Of course we did not mind, and Doris offered to go with her. The two opened the kitchen door and went out into the little hall. In a moment they returned. 'What do you think?' said Doris, in an excited undertone. The door at the top of the steps that leads into the main building is fastened, and we cannot open it.' In great surprise we all rose to our feet and looked towards Dolor Tripp that she 15 might tell us what to think. Is there a spring-lock on the door?' I asked. 'No,' said she, 'there is no spring-lock, and we did not close the door after us. We shut only this kitchen door. But I 20 know who did it,' she added, quietly. It was the ghost. It is one of its ways to lock and bolt doors.' 'The ghost!' exclaimed Doris, with a quick grasp upon the arm of Dolor Tripp. 25 'I was sure of it!' said the butcher, looking straight in front of him, and speaking very decidedly. 'I saw something white moving in the front hall as I came down the stairs. I knew it for a 30 ghost, but I did n't say anything, for I did n't suppose it would meddle with six people.' 'Fiddle-faddle!' said Lord Crabstairs. 'There are no such things as ghosts.' 35 And with this opinion I coincided. The schoolmaster said nothing. He resumed his seat at the side of the fireplace and rearranged his gown upon the crane, so as to expose all parts of it to the heat. might be necessary to put it on suddenly. It There is no mistake about this ghost,' said Dolor Tripp. 'If you will all sit down till the kettle boils I will tell you about it.' We resumed our seats in front of the fire, and the butcher put on some fresh sticks. 40 45 No, indeed,' replied Dolor Tripp. 'I used to like to watch for it. I would go into different parts of the house at night and watch for it, hoping it would come by. Sometimes weeks and weeks would pass without my seeing it, and then I would get a glimpse of it on two or three nights in succession.' 'What did it look like?' asked Doris. 'Its head was light or whitish, and below it gradually melted down into darkness.' 'That was it,' said the butcher. That is exactly like the thing I saw.' 'And you never, never told your sisters,' said Doris, 'that they were living in the house with a ghost?' 'No, indeed!' replied Dolor Tripp. 'You see, before we came here we lived in a horrid little house in the town, and when it was decided by the court that this place belonged to us nobody was so glad as I was. So, as I told you, I did not want Alwilda and Lizeth to do anything to drive the ghost away; but what I was most afraid of was that they might find that they could n't get rid of it, and would go away themselves. I would n't have that happen for anything in the world.' 'And so,' said Doris, as the burglars. would not come, you did n't want to lose the visits of a ghost.' 'Perhaps so,' replied Dolor Tripp. 'And now the kettle is boiling, and we can have some tea, if we can't get anything 'It has been in this house,' said Dolor, still holding the unlighted candle, 'ever 50 else.' since I first came here, a little girl only ten years old. I soon began to see it, though I don't believe it often saw me.' 'Didn't it frighten you nearly to death?' asked Doris. 'No,' replied the other. At first I thought it belonged to the house just as much as any of the other queer things 'As for ghosts,' interjected Lord Crabstairs, 'I never have believed in them, and never shall. But I do know that I am as hungry as a wolf; and if you 'll allow me, 55 miss, I'll push open that door, no matter who fastened it on the other side, and I'll go with you to the pantry, or anywhere else where there's bread and meat, and 5 'As for believing in ghosts,' said the butcher, a good deal depends upon who does the believing. If you've never had a chance of seeing ghosts, sir, you are out 10 of the race.' The candle was now lighted, and cups of hot tea were served by the ladies. I hurriedly drank a cup and then began to consider the situation. I went to the door 15 at the top of the steps and tried it, thinking perhaps there might be a mistake in regard to its being fastened. But there had been no mistake. It was locked, and the key was on the other side. I did not 20 like to be fastened up against my will in any place or by any agency. I now insisted that we should leave this place without delay, by a window if there was no other outlet, and make our way to 25 our boat. 'Oh, you can't get out,' said Dolor Tripp, until he unfastens the door. The window sashes are all nailed and screwed fast, and the outside shutters and that back 30 door are padlocked. Alwilda and Lizeth are very particular about having this kitchen secure from burglars. But you need n't worry. That door will be opened before long. The ghost always does that 35 after making you wait a little while.' 'I think it is rather jolly,' said Doris, 'to have a ghost for a jailer, though I can't really say I should like to have him come in and bring us a jug of water and a 40 loaf of bread.' 'If he will do that,' said Lord Crabstairs, I'll believe in him; although I don't care for the water, and should like him to fetch some meat or cheese with the 45 bread.' . . . At this moment there was a little noise at one of the windows, and, turning my eyes in that direction, I saw the lower sash raised a couple of inches. I was 50 about to spring towards the window when Doris, who had followed my glance, caught me by the coat. Instantly we all rose to our feet, and as we looked at the window, beyond which 55 we could see nothing, something like a young moon began to protrude itself through the opening under the sash. In a moment the lunar apparition had greatly increased in size and was a half-moon. Dolor Tripp now made a quick step forward. 'Keep back, all of you,' she said. 'I know what it is.' And going to the window she took hold of the moon, and, drawing it into the room, she held it up to us in all the glory of its fullness. 'A pumpkin pie!' exclaimed Doris. We gathered about it. It was of the largest size and as yellow as gold. 'Oh, delicious!' cried Doris. Somebody get a knife.' 'But where did it come from?' I asked. 'From the ghost, of course,' replied Dolor Tripp. That is one of its ways. It leaves pies about. Several times when it has locked me into a room I've just waited quietly until I found the door unfastened, and there outside, just where I would n't step into it, there would be a little pie.' 'A lovely ghost!' cried Lord Crabstairs. 'I am converted. I believe in him. But this is n't a pie, it's a tart. Pies are made of meat.' 'No, they are not,' said the butcher; 'at least, not punkin pies. I should think I ought to know what things are made of meat.' And I ought to know what things are made of fruits and vegetables,' retorted Lord Crabstairs. 'That is a tart!' 'I'll toss up to see who is right,' said the butcher. 'Done!' said Lord Crabstairs, producing a penny. · Heads!' cried the butcher. It was tails. 'All right,' said the butcher. 'I'll take some of it, but all the same I never imagined that I should live long enough to eat punkin tart!' Dolor Tripp quickly cut the pie into six parts, but I would have none of it. I do not believe in ghosts, and will not eat food brought by them. I went to the window and endeavored to raise the sash higher, but could not do so. With all my strength I could not increase the width of the nar row aperture. One of the shutters was open, but the shadow of the main building and a growth of evergreen bushes made everything dark immediately outside. I left the window, and walking quietly out of the kitchen into the little hall, I again tried the door at the top of the |