"
"Stephanie! You saw her? By Jove! Then you are right this time.
Quick! tell me all you learned."
Allan lied fluently, elaborately, and, finding his hero plunged
into despair, resigned himself gratefully to another period of
blissful idleness. This was much the simplest way, he decided; for
even should Kirk meet a Garavel or a Fermina, there was no chance
of his winning her, and love, after all, is but a passing impulse
which may be summoned or banished at will by such simple mediums
as charms. The boy did go out of his way to ease his benefactor's
malady by taking a lock of his own fuzzy wool and placing it
beneath Kirk's mattress, after certain exorcisms.
There followed a period of blank dejection. Kirk's first
disappointment, when the girl had failed to keep her tryst, was as
nothing compared to this, for now he felt that she was
unattainable. He did not quite give up hope; so many strange
experiences had befallen him since his involuntary departure from
New York that it all seemed like a dream in which anything is
possible. But he was deep in the doldrums when, with magic
suddenness, the scene changed, and his long discouragement came to
an end.
XIX
"LA TOSCA"
The winter season was at its height now.
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