ii6 ?^oio €l)tv CourtttJ. 



A chance meeting at a lawn tennis part}^ in Clod- 

 shire ; an accidental (?) one on horseback afterwards, 

 and, subsequently, a few pleasant rides together 

 through its shady, silent lanes had done the mischief, 

 and, of course, it would now have been little short 

 of " sudden death " to either of them had they not 

 met or corresponded every other day or so. She 

 was a pretty girl — was Kate Ponsonby — and if, after 

 having seen nearly seventeen summers come and 

 go, it w^as a trifle infra dig to have to search for 

 your love letters neatly folded up at the bottom of 

 a strawberry cream or lemon water ice, it was 

 certainly better, as the more candid young ladies 

 will allow, than not having any to search for at all. 

 Yes, although the bottom of an ice was surely no 

 fitting place for those warm-hearted productions, it 

 was, nevertheless, their fate so to be located, for 

 Charley had won the confectioner's young lady over 

 to his interests, and found this to be the safest, if 

 not most romantic, mode of daily communication ; 

 for Miss Robinson's fair charges always called at 

 Thompson's for those delicacies (the ices I mean) 

 during their daily constitutionals in summer. 



Special communications to these charm.ing crea- 

 tures used formerly to be hurled through space 

 attached to stones from Mr. Cramem's windows to 

 the garden of the said Seminary ; but as the stately 



