"Afraid? Oh no. It's awfully nice, and all that, you know."
"But shouldn't you like to get away out of this?"
"Get away?"
"Yes, if I could get off, and get you off too?"
"But how can we go?"
"Well, I don't know just yet. I only know the way from my room here,
and back again; but I may find out something."
"But that won't do any good. Don't you really know any way out?"
"Not yet, but I hope to find one; I dare say I shall before long."
"Oh, how delicious! how perfectly delicious that would be! I do wish
that you only could. It would be quite too awfully nice, you know."
"I'll let you know. I promise you."
"But then," said Katie, "you'll be going off yourself and leaving
poor me behind."
"Leave you!" said Harry, indignantly; "never!"
"Wouldn't you really?" asked Katie, in a tone of delight.
"Never," said Harry. "I wouldn't stir a step without you. I'd rather
be a prisoner with you than a free man without you."
Katie drew a long breath.
"Well," said she, "I think you must be a true friend."
"I'd rather be here with you," persisted Harry, "than anywhere in the
world without you."
"If only your passage-way ran outside the building, wouldn't it be
nice?" said Katie. "Why, we might pop out now, and away we would go,
and no one a bit the wiser."
"And where would you like me to take you?"
"Where? Oh, anywhere!"
"But where in particular?"
[Illustration: "It Was--Yes, It Was Katie!"]
"Oh, I don't care. I like Madrid very well, or London; but it's too
rainy there and foggy."
"Should you like Barcelona?" inquired Harry, tenderly.
"I dare say, though I've never been there. But I don't half know what
I'm talking about, and I think I've been mixing up my dreams with
real life; and you come so into the middle of a dream that it seems
like a continuation of it; and I'm not sure but that this is a dream.
I'm pinching myself too, all the time, and it hurts, so that I think
I must be awake. But, all the same, you really mean what you say?"
"Mean it? Why, I can't say one thousandth part of what I really mean.
Don't you believe it, when you see me here?"
"But I don't see you at all," said Katie.
Harry looked at her for a moment, and then said, abruptly,
"Keep your shawl around you, poor little girl; I'm afraid you'll get
cold;" and with tender solicitude he proceeded to draw her shawl
tighter around her slender figure. This was a work which required no
little time and skill. Not a word was now spoken for some time. This
was of course wiser on their part than whispering, for whispers are
sometimes dangerous, and may lead to discovery. But Harry seemed
troubled about Katie's health, and was never satisfied about that
shawl.
"You are so very kind!" said Katie, at last.
"It's because I'm so fond of--the shawl," said Harry. "I love to
arrange it for you. I should like to take it back with me."
"Should you really?"
"Above all things--except one."
"What?"
"Why, of course, I should rather take back with me what's inside the
shawl."