-so grisly and ghoulish, indeed, that it is shadows in its pale light, and the whole counhard to talk about them; so savage in their try is veiled in the still, spectral, exquisite manners that they might drive the more timid atmosphere,» one is afraid to trust oneself traveler quick away and back to civilization. into the mystery that clothes the shadowy When any one comes to draw the great bridge land, and there is joy in the fear. It was the from the appropriate point beneath, the sport same at Granada, I remember; when, in the of the leading citizens is to gather in crowds moonlight, we looked down from the ramparts upon it, and throw stones upon the rocky hill- of the Alhambra, we felt as if we could not sides, starting an avalanche which makes trust ourselves to wander in the streets of the artist who has been foolish enough to go the dream city lying there, and its fairness there drop his work and run for his life. appealed to us but more strongly because of Still, I suppose, one must pay somehow for the delicious dread of we knew not what. the privilege of visiting the most sensational Perhaps in this feeling you have the clue to place in Spain. Its wonderful position, its the elusive beauty which is at once the mysmagnificent bridges, its beautiful little valley, tery and charm of Spain. where the finest fruit in Spain is grown, its The capture of Ronda by the Spaniards encircling crown of sierra, make up to a cer- was weary enough work for Ferdinand and his tain extent for the discomfort of staying in its knights; but the incredible thing is that they horrible boarding-house, among the savage should have taken it at all. What has not brutes of its population.

nature done for its defense? The Spanish conFor the wonder of its moonlit nights one quest is harder than ever to understand once would accept still greater evils than this. you have been to Andalusia. Ronda, set on the When there is a moon, and cliffs and stream edge of its chasm, you would think safe and and bridges and road become so many soft firm to defy all the world through all time.

But its fate was that of Granada, and of every other Moorish hill-town. Its greatness has long gone from it, and now it too is but a spectacle to be advertised by Murray, to be stared at by the fortunate traveler who does not succumb, as I did in my folly, to an overdose of Southern sunshine and midsummer heat.

On all sides, it may be, such sights were to be seen, such feasts to be enjoyed. But, as I had given up in Seville, so J., when he came to Ronda, was too exhausted to go farther. The Spanish summer is beautiful for those who spend it, as we did so many of its long, listless weeks, in the Alhambra. Indeed, with German Lloyd steamers from New York touching at Gibraltar, I wonder if the unhappy day is not at hand when Granada will become a rival to Bar Harbor and Newport. The Spanish summer is made for sleeping, not for journeying; for rest, not for adventure. The most energetic traveler has but to set foot on Spanish shores in July or August to understand the « Lotus-eaters' » song:

O rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander

more!

And if he can but reach the Alhambra before he comes to this wise decision, we can promise him the loveliest, laziest days among elms and cypresses and oleanders he ever yet has known.

DRAWN BY JOSCPH PENNELL.

GIBRALTAR FROM ALGECIRAS.

Elizabeth Robins Pennell.

AN OPEN-EYED CONSPIRACY:

AN IDYL OF SARATOGA.

BY WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS,
Author of « Their Wedding Journey,» « The Rise of Silas Lapham,» etc.

WITH PICTURES BY IRVING R WILES.

could not conceal from ourselves, of course, that we had done rather a romantic thing, and in the light of Europe, which we had more or less upon our actions, rather an absurd thing; but it was a comfort to find that Miss Gage thought it neither romantic nor absurd. She took · the affair with an apparent ignorance of anything unusual in it-with so much ignorance, indeed, that Mrs. March had her occasional question whether she was duly impressed with what was being done for her. Whether this was so or not, it is certain that she was as docile and as biddable as need be. She did not always ask what she should do; that would not have been in the tradition of village independence; but she always did what she was told, and did not vary from her instructions a hair's breadth. I do not suppose she always knew why she might do this and might not do that; and I do not suppose that young girls often understand the reasons of the proprieties. They are told that they must, and that they must not, and this in an astonishing degree suffices them if they are nice

girls. X.

Of course there was pretty constant ques

tion of Kendricks in the management of Miss TE had undertaken rather a queer affair, Gage's amusement, for that was really what

but it was not so queer after all, when our enterprise resolved itself into. He showed Miss Gage was fairly settled with us. There from the first the sweetest disposition to forwere other young girls in that pleasant house ward all our plans in regard to her, and, in who had only one another's protection and the fact, he even anticipated our wishes. I do general safety of the social atmosphere. We not mean to give the notion that he behaved

DRAWN BY IRVING R. WILES.

IN THE HOUSE OF PANSA.

WE

from an interested motive in going to the classic in public architecture, I don't see station the morning Mrs. Deering left, and why the Pompeiian villa should n't be the getting her ticket for her, and checking her next word for summer cottage.» baggage, and posting her in the changes she «Well, we 'll see what Fulkerson says. He would have to make. This was something I may see an ad. in it. Would you like to do it?» ought to have thought of myself, but I did not «Why not do it yourself? Nobody else think of it, and I am willing that he should could do it so well.» have all the credit. I know that he did it out « Thanks for the taffy; but the idea was of the lovely generosity of nature which al- yours.) ways took me in him. Miss Gage was there « I'll do it,» said Kendricks, after a moment, with her, and she remained to be consoled <if you won't.» after Mrs. Deering departed. They came « We 'll see.) straight to us from the train, and then, when Miss Gage stared, and Mrs. March said: he had consigned Miss Gage to Mrs. March's «I did n't suppose the House of Pansa care, he offered to go and see that her things would lead to shop with you two.» were transferred from her hotel to ours; they «You never can tell which way copy lies,» were all ready, she said, and the bill was paid. I returned; and I asked the girl, « What should

He did not come back that day, and, in you think, Miss Gage, of a little paper with fact, he delicately waited for some sign from a thread of story, but mostly talk, on a supus that his help was wanted. But when he posititious Pompeiian cottage ? » did come he had formulated Saratoga very «I don't believe I understand,» said she, far completely, and had a better conception of too remote from our literary interests, as I doing it than I had, after my repeated so- saw, to be ashamed of her ignorance. journs.

« There!» I said to Kendricks. «Do you We went very early in our explorations to think the general public would ? » the House of Pansa, which you find in very « Miss Gage is n't the general public," said much better repair at Saratoga than you do my wife, who had followed the course of my at Pompeii, and we contrived to pass a whole thought; her tone implied that Miss Gage was afternoon there. My wife and I had been wiser and better. there before more than once; but it always «Would you allow yourself to be drawn,» I pleasantly recalled our wander-years, when asked, « dreamily issuing from an aisle of the we first met in Europe, and we suffered round pine grove as the tutelary goddess of a Pomafter those young things with a patience peiian cottage?» which I hope will not be forgotten at the Day The girl cast a bewildered glance at my of Judgment. When we came to a seat we wife, who said: « You need n't pay any attensat down, and let them go off by themselves; tion to him, Miss Gage. He has an idea that but my recollection is that there is not much he is making a joke.» furniture in the House of Pansa that you can We felt that we had done enough for one sit down on, and for the most part we all afternoon, when we had done the House of kept together.

Pansa, and I proposed that we should go and Kendricks and I thought alike about the sit down in Congress Park and listen to the Pompeiian house as a model of something Troy band. I was not without the hope that that might be done in the way of a seaside it would play «Washington Post.) cottage in our own country, and we talked My wife contrived that we should fall in up a little paper that might be done for behind the young people as we went, and she « Every Other Week,» with pretty architec- asked, «What do you suppose she made of tural drawings, giving an account of our it all?» imaginary realization of the notion.

« Probably she thought it was the House « Have somebody,” he said, « visit people of Sancho Panza. who had been boring him to come down, or « No; she has n't read enough to be so up, or out, and see them, and find them in a ignorant even as that. It's astonishing how Pompeiian house, with the sea in front and a much she does n't know. What can her home blue-green grove of low pines behind. Might life have been like?» have a thread of story, but mostly talk about « Philistine to the last degree. We people how they came to do it, and how delightfully who are near to literature have no conception livable they found it. You could work it up how far from it most people are. The imwith some architect, who would help you to mense majority of homes, as the newskeep off the grass in the way of technical papers call them, have no books in them blunders. With all this tendency to the except the Bible and a semi-religious volume

or two,-things you never
see out of such (homes,
and the State business direc-
tory. I was astonished when
it came out that she knew
about Every Other Week.)
It must have been by accident.
The sordidness of her home
life must be something unim-
aginable. The daughter of
a village capitalist, who 's
put together his money dollar
by dollar, as they do in such
places, from the necessities
and follies of his neighbors,
and has half the farmers of
the region by the throat
through his mortgages-I
don't think she's (one to be
desired) any more than the
daughter of a hundred earls,
if so much.)

« She does n't seem sordid herself.»

«Oh, the taint does n't show itself at once:

"If nature put not forth her

power About the opening of the

flower, Who is it that could live an

hour?)

DRAWN BY IRVING R. WILES.

THE BOOKSTALL.

and she is a flower, beautiful, exquisite.

« Yes; and she had a mother as well as this father of hers. Why should n't she be like her When we came up he said, “I 'm going to mother ? »

run off a moment; I'm going up to the bookI laughed. «That is true. I wonder why store there, and he pointed toward one that we always leave the mother out of the count had spread across the sidewalk just below when we sum up the hereditary tendencies? the Congress Hall veranda, with banks and I suppose the mother is as much a parent as shelves of novels, and a cry of bargains in the father?

them on signs sticking up from their rows. « Quite. And there is no reason why this «I want to see if they have the Last Days girl should n't have her mother's nature.) of Pompeii.»

« We don't actually know anything against « We will find the ladies inside the park,» I her father's nature yet,» I suggested; « but if said. “I will go with you—» her mother lived a starved and stunted life « Mr. March wants to see if they have the with him, it may account for that effect of last number of Every Other Week,)» my wife disappointed greed which I fancied in her mocked after us. This was, indeed, commonly when I first saw her.)

a foible of mine. I had newly become one of «I don't call it greed in a young girl to the owners of the periodical as well as the want to see something of the world.» editor, and I was all the time looking out for « What do you call it?»

it at news-stands and book-stores, and judging Kendricks and the girl were stopping at their enterprise by its presence or absence. the gate of the pavilion, and looking round But this time I had another motive, though I at us. «Ah, he's got enough for one day! did not allege it. He's going to leave her to us now.)

« I suppose it's for Miss Gage?» I ventured

a

to say, by way of prefacing what I wished to part of a letter from him conveying his « resay. «Kendricks, I'm afraid we ’re abusing spects, and asking her to thank us for him. your good nature. I know you 're up here to She came to me with the check it inclosed, look about, and you ’re letting us use all your and asked me to get it cashed for her; it was time. You must n't do it. Women have no for a handsome amount. But she continued conscience about these things, and you can't to go about at our cost, quite unconsciously, expect a woman who has a young lady on her till one day she happened to witness a conhands to spare you. I give you the hint. Don't test of civility between Kendricks and me count upon Mrs. March in this matter.» as to which should pay the carriage we

«Oh, I think you ’re very good to allow me were dismissing. That night she came to to bother round,» said the young fellow, with Mrs. March, and, with many blushes, asked that indefatigable politeness of his. He added to be allowed to pay for the past and the vaguely, « It's very interesting.”

future her full share of the expense of our «Seeing it through such a fresh mind? » I joint pleasures. She said that she had never suggested. «Well, I'll own that I don't think thought of it before, and she felt so much you could have found a much fresher one. ashamed. She could not be consoled till she Has she read «The Last Days of Pompeii?»» was promised that she should be indulged

«She thought she had at first, but it was for the future, and that I should be obliged (The Fall of Granada. »

to average the outlay already made and let « How delightful! Don't you wish we could her pay a fourth. When she had gained her read books with that utterly unliterary sense point, Mrs. March said that she seemed a of them ? »

little scared, and said: “I have n't offended « Don't you think women generally do ? » he you, Mrs. March, have I? Because if it is n't asked evasively.

right for me to pay—» «I dare say they do at De Witt Point.» « It's quite right, my dear,» said my wife; He did not answer; I saw that he was not «and it's very nice of you to think of it. willing to talk the young lady over, and I « You know, the girl explained, «I 've could not help praising his taste to myself at never been out a great deal at home even; the cost of my own. His delicacy forbade and it 's always the custom there for the him the indulgence which my own protested gentlemen to pay for a ride-or dance-or against in vain. He showed his taste again anything; but this is different.) in buying a cheap copy of the book, which he Mrs. March said «Yes, and, in the intermeant to give her, and of course he had to be est of civilization, she did a little missionary all the more attentive to her because of my work. She told her that in Boston the young deprecating his self-devotion.

ladies paid for their tickets to the Harvard assemblies, and preferred to do it, because it left them without even a tacit obligation.

Miss Gage said she had never heard of In the intimacy that grew up between my such a thing before, but she could see how wife and Miss Gage I found myself less and much better it was. less included. It seemed to me at times that I do not think she got on with « The Last I might have gone away from Saratoga and Days of Pompeii » very rapidly; its immediate not have been seriously missed by any one; but interest was superseded by other things. But perhaps this was not taking sufficient account she always had the book about with her, and of my value as a spectator by whom Mrs. I fancied that she tried to read it in those March could verify her own impressions. moments of relaxation from our pleasuring

The girl had never known a mother's care, when she might better have been day-dreamand it was affecting to see how willing she ing, though I dare say she did enough of was to be mothered by the chance kindness that too. of a stranger. She probably felt more and What amused me in the affair was the more her ignorance of the world as it un- celerity with which it took itself out of our folded itself to her in terms so altogether hands. In an incredibly short time we had strange to the life of De Witt Point. I was no longer the trouble of thinking what we not sure that she would have been so grate- should do for Miss Gage; that was provided ful for the efforts made for her enjoyment if for by the forethought of Kendricks, and they had failed, but as the case stood she was our concern was how each could make the certainly grateful; my wife said that, and I other go with the young people on their ex: saw it. She seemed to have written home cursions and expeditions. We had seen and about us to her father, for she read my wife done all the things that they were doing,

XI.