THE MATE TO MY CAMEO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 36, 5 January 1894, Page 21

THE MATE TO MY CAMEO.

(By F. A. Mitohbl, in Belford't Monthly )

I HAD strolled into the park to pass time that hang heavy on my bind*. On the morrow I was to take part in what wao, at least to me, and one other, an important affair ; and nothing is more trying than waiting for a crisis. I was a student at a German uni▼ersity. Not a German student or an Bnglish stndent— an American. I sat idly tapping my boot with my stick ; before me the lake, the boat* skimming its surface, the pagoda, carriages passing and repaising; all flashing in the sunlight. On a grass plot not far from where I lounged, a couple of French bonnet were gossiping, while the obildren they watched chased each other o?er the grew award. I could occasionally catch words as the little ones shouted to each other, and I knew they were English— at least they spoke the English tongue. One of them, a littlo girl of perhaps six or aaven years, had dashed by me several times with flying ringlets. In her sash was that which plainly showed she had disregarded the instructions posted everywhere : "Egist nicAt erlaubt Bhvmen aizupjucken "— " It is not peraitUd to pluck the flowert." In one of her flights I stopped har. - Don't you see," I said, pointing with my stick to one of these notices ; " they won't let anyone pick the flowers f " She looked from ma to the notice, then at her flowers j then fixed her eyes straight on mine. But her mind was not easily made np to such an informal introduction, and she soon dropped her eyes again to the flowers. 11 Suppose a policeman should come along," I went on, " and find these flowers in your girdle 1 " Her brow knit in a frown, but still she did not deign to answer. 11 Never mind ; I'll try to get him to let you off, if he comes." 11 But if you can't T " said a little voice. It was so little and so timid that I scarcely heard it. " I can try. Won't you give me one of the flowers 7 " In a twinkling she forgot her fears. A new question came np to drive the first right out of hsr little brain. She began to pick over the flowers, hunting for one worthy of a gift. On the roadway at the foot of the slope one of the guardians of tke park was loitering in the sun, his hands clasped behind him, his ■abre swinging like the pendulum of a clock as he walked with his head thrown back, that he might see from under his helmet. He would move to the extremity of his beat, stop and look a while at the picture of park scenery before him, then turn and walk idly back. His eyes wera evidently on the maids with the group of children. Presently, instead of stopping when he came to the end of his beat, he kept on and around a curve in the road, disappearing for a few moments behind a clump of trees. " Tha policeman I" I exclaimed to the child. " He's coming." " Where 7 " her cheek whitening. 11 Down there behind the trees." She looked anxiously in the direction I pointed. " Give me the flowers," I said. • He'll think I took them." " No." 11 Tea, quick.' " No, no," she cried, impatiently stamping her diminutive foot. " Why not 7 " 41 You didn't take them." 11 Wall, come and sit by me. I won't let him hurt you." She came and climbed upon the seat beside me. The policeman came od, professedly lookiDg at the flower-beds or the trees, or up at the sky, but really at the maids. As he came near where we were sitting, I conld hear my protege's little heart beating like a toy drumstick. When he came opposite us, what was my astonishment to see her take the flowers from her girdle and hold them towards him, and call out : 41 1 took your flowers, Mr P'liceman. Are yon going to take me to prison ! " Fortunately she spoke in Boglish, and not till a moment after he bad passed. He kept on without noticing us, around the road which bent in an ellipse about the sward. Then my little girl buried her face against my shoulder and burst into tears. This conflict between physical timidity and moral strength was a novelty to me. My only idea of conrage thus far was that which is attended by brote force. There was something to me very touching in the child's conquest of herself ; her subjection of her fear of punishment to her sense of right. For a few minutes, to a passerby there would have been presented the singular spectacle of a young man with sprouting beard, in tasselled high top-boott, a tightfitting jacket and a student's cap, playing the uncouth part of masculine nnrso in comforting a child. " Never miad, little one ; he shouldn't have troubled you ; I'd have spitted him on his own steel first." > In another moment there was a transition. Undried tears stood on her cheek, but every other vestige of distress had disappeared She stepped down off the seat.

" Are you going to leave me ?" I asked. 11 Yes." " So soon 7 " 44 Maybe I'll come back again if—" 44 If the policeman comes, you little coward, no, yon little heroine. Won't you give me a kiss before you go 7 " She looked down on the walk, neither aasenting to nor dissenting from my proposition. I drew her towards me, and taking her head between my two hands, looked into her face. There was a strange contrast in tbe picture of innocence before me and the picture of another kind which thrust its ugliness upon my mind— a picture of the day before. I had quarrelled with my chum, an Englishman, Tie quarrel arose from nothing. "All progressive thought," I said, 4l emanates from Germany." 44 From England," be supplemented. *• Germans are full of idealism— poetry— romance." 44 And cheese and beer; Englishmen can writs much better stuff," be sneered. 44 And fill themselves much fuller with beef and porter." 44 And an American can get his heels higher." 44 You are full of English arrogance and conceit." I was becoming angry. 44 And you are full of American assurance," he retorted, " English, cowardly brut—" He stopped me. His manner, which had been cool, changed, but to a steadier vein even than before. 4I Only a coward would use such words to a friend." His words and his steadiness threw me into a passion. I was very quick or I couldn't have done what I did. I sent him sprawling on the floor. Several students heard the noise and rushed in. For a moment they stood staring near the door, then came and raised him. Bnt lam gaziag into tha face of innocence. The curves are so beautifnl, co delicate, blending the cheek into tbe fulness of the throat. The thin nostril, the sensitive lip, tke ear tinged with vermilion. I smoothed back the tresses of fine hair. Presently she asked : " Have you got a girl f " 44 No, I havn't a girl." " Have you got a boy 7 " 44 Noraboy." 44 Haven't you got any children at all 7 " " Not one, And I haven't father or mother." She pitied me. 44 Brothers 7 " 41 No brothers," 41 Sisters 7 " 41 Not one." " I don't like that." Her big blue eyes were full of sympathy. I wound my arm about her. How frail the little figure felt in my strong clasp. 41 Deedie I " called one of the maids. 41 1 must go now. Emilie is calling me." 44 Go and ask Emilie if you may come back and stay with me a little longer." 44 Will you wait here till I come 7 " 41 Certainly." I leaned back on the wooden Bettee and watched an animated conversation between the b»nne and the child, the former throwing occasional suspicious glances in my direction. Ihe tiny pleader argued briskly. She bent her little face near to that of tbe maid, and snapped her eyes and made excited little gestures, speaking so fast (from what I could hear, iv French) that she must have quite confounded her guardian ; for presently she came running back all out of breath, with the information that she might stay a little longer. I sat for some time trying to keep her with me, for at sight of a butterfly or a humming-bird she would be off like tbe wind. When she came back from one of these flights I drew her to me to caress her. I wound her curls around my fingers ; I smoothed tbe tumbled hair from tbe forehead. And all the time she prattled, and asked me questions, and told me about people whose identity she didn't trouble herself to explain, as though I had always known them. 44 What a funny cap ! " She reached up and took the diminutive covering worn by students in Germany from my bead, and patting it on her own, broke away, and capered about like a little witch Then ehe cams back and put the cap on my head, and when I tiltea* it on one side she objected, and insisted on my wearing it straight. "Do you live here always 7 " she asked. No. When I'm at home I live where tbe sun gets up in the morning long after it does here. When you are eating your breakfast it iv dark there." Her eyes were full of wonder. '■ Where is that country ? " " America." II Why, we live in America." " Indeed 7 " "It isn't dark there when we eat our breakfast."

I laughed. Why trouble myself to eiplniu. She would not understand. I asked her how she would lika to go back with me. She thought a moment. •' I'd go anywhere to be with you." I was forgetting everything in this confidence, this innocence, this diminutive combination of strength and weakness. She insisted on decorating me with the flowers 6be had appropriated, and soon made me look like a figure in a flower-bed— "a Hector io the gar- • den." Then she stood off and looked at me, and clapped her bands in great glee and laughed, aod I laughed myeelf. "Deedie I " " Your nurae is calling you again ; you must go." " Are you coming here to-morrow i " ehe asked. The question startled me. It brought me back to my quarrel. Where might I be to-morrow ? "Do yon wish me to come ? " I asked, " Yes." " Very much ? " " Ever so much." An expression of pain must have passed over my face, for she asked :— » Why do you look sorry ? " " Go . But stay a moment. What can I give you for a keepsake ? " I felt in my vest-pocket for some trinket, but could find nothing, " Here." I pulled a cameo sleeve-button from my cuff and banded it to her. She drew back. "Mamma won't let mi take things from people." " Take it, and if your mamma won't let you keep it you can bring it back to me another day." •• To-morrow ? " II Go I go I good-by." 1 wonnd my arms about her and kissed her. When 1 opened them it was like letting a bird out of a cage. She flew like a swallow near the ground across the grass to rejoin the nurseß and the other children. Then they all arose and walked away. Bach nurse dragged a child smaller than the rest by the hand, while the otber children danced along, skipping backward and forward, taking many a useless step, the boys pounding one another with chubby fiats, the girls ■topping to gather clover leaves, all moving together, gilded by the rays of the setting sun. And my little fiiend 1 Every step she took was a step of grace ; every swing of her armß and bending of her body, a curve of beauty. She raD, and skipped, dancing along backwark, half the time on htr toep, as if too light to stay on the ground, holding up her k«epsake for me to see and throwing me kisses, first with one hand and then the otber. As she passed over a strip of higher ground her form stood out against the sky. Bha turned for the last time to wave me a good-by. The sun's rays were flooding her ; they rested on her shoulder ; they kissed her cheek ; they revelled in her tres3es. For a moment hor figure seemed to hover on the crest, and then was gone ; not descending with the slope on the other side, but vanishing iuto the violet sky.

(To he continued.')