two.  She never allowed anybody, not even Peter, dearest of all, to come into the cave or sit on the bench afterward.  What her childish fancy of an unknown friend was, or how it grew and altered with her years, only she knew, though after she was grown she told her father of a certain Sir Guy in some of his crusading stories in whom she had believed as a fact.  “I actually thought he would come to woo me,” she said laughing, “and I had a castle where I sat and waited for him.  There never was a child so full of absurd fancies.”

But she never said where the castle was, and she was fond still of sitting alone for hours on the old bench, over which the shade grew heavier year by year, and the moonlight crept with more mysterious glitter.  She came in sometimes when she had been there in the evening, and the sound of old Peter’s violin alone broke the silence, with her cheeks feverish, as though there had been an actual presence with her to share her secret thoughts.  The only living being she had ever taken into her hiding-place was, oddly enough, a baby of whom she was fond.  It happened to fall asleep in her arms one day, and Catharine stole out with it and sat on the old seat, feeling its warm breath on her breast.  The girl was shaken by an emotion which she did not understand:  her blood grew hot, her breath came and went, she stroked the baby’s hand and foot, kissed it, glanced about her with eyes guilty yet pure.

But it is certain Kitty had no thought of her cave this afternoon.  Mr. Muller and his affairs were quite another matter.  There was an awkward silence.  Mr. Muller was collecting his forces:  he cleared his throat.  “Catharine—­” he said.

“Ah, William!” cried a clear, well-toned voice behind them.  He turned, half annoyed and half relieved, to meet a young lady in gray, stepping alertly from the doorway of the Water-cure House.

“Maria?  This is my sister Maria, Miss Vogdes.”

The lady looked at Kitty—­a steady, straightforward look—­then held out her hand.  It was a large, warm, hearty hand, and gripped yours like a man’s.  Kitty took it, but felt like shirking the eyes.  She had no mind to be so weighed and measured.  She had an uncomfortable consciousness that her inner nature was all bared and sorted by this agreeable young woman in this first moment to the last odd and end in it, though she could not have put the consciousness into words.

“Going to the school, William?  I am.”

“Well—­yes, we will go there.”  He turned irresolutely, and they walked together down the plank pathway, Kitty with an oppressive sense of having fallen into the clutch of one of the Primal Forces, who was about to settle her destiny for her; in which she stumbled almost on the truth.  Miss Muller was quite aware of the fact of her brother’s visits at the book-shop, and their motive.  She glanced at her watch:  she could give herself half an hour to find out what stuff was in the girl, though it hardly needed so long.  “A good type of the Domestic Woman in the raw state,” she thought. (She always jotted down her thoughts sharply to herself, as a busy shopkeeper makes entries in his day-book.) “Pulpy, kissable.  A vine to which poor William would appear an oak.  A devoted wife, and, if he died, a gay widow, ready to be a fond wife to somebody else.”