Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/157

It was on a soft, dark evening of the following week that they engaged in the adventure. Tina was to meet her at a point in the highway at which the lane to the village branched off. Christoph was to go ahead of them to the harbor where the boat lay, row it round the Nothe—or Lookout as it was eslled in those days—and pick them up on the other side of the promontory, which they were to reach by crossing the harbor bridge on foot, and climbing over the Lookout hill.

As soon as her father had ascended to his room she left. the house, and, bundle in hand, proceeded at a trot along the lane. At euch an hour not a soul was

‘oot anywhere in the village, and she reached the junction of the lane with the highway unobserved, Here she took up her position in the obscurity formed by the angle of a fence, whence she could discern every one who approached along the turnpike-read without being herself seen.

She had not remained thus waiting for her lover longer than a minute—though from the tension of her nerves the lapse of even that short time was trying—when, instead of the expected footsteps, the stage-coach could be heard descending the hill, She knew that Tina would not show himself till the road was clear, and waited impatiently for the coach to pass. Nearing the corner where ahe was it slackened speed, and, instead of going by as usual, drew up within afew yards of her. A passenger alighted, and she heard his voice. It was Humphrey Gould’s.

He had bronght a friend with him, and luggage. The luggage was deposited on the grass, and the coach went on its route to the royal watering-place,