LITTLE CLASSICS EDITED BY ROSSITER JOHNSON STORIES OF ROMANCE [Illustration] BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1914 COPYRIGHT, 1875, BY JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [Illustration] CONTENTS. PAGE IRIS _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 7 THE ROSICRUCIAN _Dinah Maria Mulock Craik_ 83 THE SOUTH BREAKER _Harriet Prescott Spofford_ 115 THE SNOW-STORM _John Wilson_ 184 THE KING OF THE PEAK _Allan Cunningham_ 206 [Illustration] [Illustration] IRIS. FROM “THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE.” BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. I. I told you that I was perfectly sure, beforehand, we should find some pleasing girlish or womanly shape to fill the blank at our table and match the dark-haired youth at the upper corner. There she sits, at the very opposite corner, just as far off as accident could put her from this handsome fellow, by whose side she ought, of course, to be sitting. One of the “positive” blondes, as my friend, you may remember, used to call them. Tawny-haired, amber-eyed, full-throated, skin as white as a blanched almond. Looks dreamy to me, not self-conscious, though a black ribbon round her neck sets it off as a Marie-Antoinette’s diamond-necklace could not do. So in her dress, there is a harmony of tints that looks as if an artist had run his eye over her and given a hint or two like the finishing touch to a picture. I can’t help being struck with her, for she is at once rounded and fine in feature, looks calm, as blondes are apt to, and as if she might run wild, if she were trifled with.——It is just as I knew it would be,——and anybody can see that our young Marylander will be dead in love with her in a week. Then if that little man would only turn out immensely rich and have the good-nature to die and leave them all his money, it would be as nice as a three-volume novel.