himself upon the particular seat, he would keep a watch upon the hotel
window until the occupants of the room retired to rest. It might happen
that his cousin remained invisible. Then he would return to his rooms
in a highly dissatisfied state, and sit up half the night protesting
against fate and smoking strong black tobacco. On the other hand, if he
had the good luck to see the graceful figure of his old playfellow, he
felt that that was the next best thing to being actually in her company,
and departed eventually in a more contented frame of mind. Thus, when
Dr. Dimsdale fondly imagined his son to be a mile away grappling with
the mysteries of science, that undutiful lad was in reality perched
within sixty yards of him, with his thoughts engrossed by very different
matters.

Kate could not fail to understand what was going on. However young and
innocent a girl may be, there is always some subtle feminine instinct
which warns her that she is loved. Then first she realizes that she has
passed the shadowy frontier line which divides the child-life from that
of the woman. Kate felt uneasy and perplexed, and half involuntarily
she changed her manner towards him.

It had been frank and sisterly; now it became more distant and
constrained. He was quick to observe the change, and in private raved
and raged at it. He even made the mistake of showing his pique to her,
upon which she became still more retiring and conventional. Then be
bemoaned himself in the sleepless watches of the night, and confided to
his bed-post that in his belief such a case had never occurred before in
the history of the world, and never by any chance could or would happen
again. He also broke out into an eruption of bad verses, which were
found by his landlady during her daily examination of his private
papers, and were read aloud to a select audience of neighbours, who were