It may seem stupid to
some--to me the words and the air are charming, for I heard them from
the sweetest lips in the world. Indeed there was something so pure and
childlike about the young girl, that I bowed before her. Her presence
made me better--banished all discordant emotions. All about her was
delicate and tender, and pure. Like her "bird of bright plumage" she
seemed to have flitted here to utter her carol, after which she would
open her wings and disappear!
Katy ran on, in the pauses of her singing, with a hundred little jests,
interspersed with her sweet childlike laughter, and I was more and more
enchanted--when all at once I saw her turn her head over her shoulder.
A bright flush came to her cheeks as she did so; her songs and laughter
ceased; then--a step behind us!
I looked back, and found the cause of her sudden "dignity," her demure
silence. The unfortunate Colonel Surry had quite disappeared from the
maiden's mind.
Coming on rapidly, with springy tread, I saw--Tom Herbert! Tom Herbert,
radiant; Tom Herbert, the picture of happiness; Tom Herbert, singing in
his gay and ringing voice:--
"Katy! Katy!
Don't marry any other!
You'll break my heart and kill me dead,
And you'll be hung for murder!"
Wretch!--I could cheerfully have strangled him!
VII.
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