Peter Burnett stood on the top-most of the broad white steps leading tothe "Shadyville Seminary for Young Ladies." He had just closed thedoor of that sacred institution behind him, and with a sigh of reliefwhich was incompatible with the honors of his professorship. But Peterhad never duly valued his position of instructor to Shadyville'sfeminine youth, though his reverence for scholarship was deep andsincere.
It was Friday afternoon, and freed from the chrysalis of hisbread-winning duties, he was about to spread his wings for the flightof his inclination. He looked out on the April greenery of the townwith the fastidious gaze of one who has the world to choose from; forthough he was a poor young school-master, clad in a shirt that had beendarned too often, he was also a Burnett of Kentucky and born to amanner of leisure and arrogance.
Slowly, and with this manner at its best, he began to descend thesteps. His whole lax figure assumed an air of indolence that, for allhis lack of imposing proportions, subtly invested him with distinction,and he set a dallying, aristocratic foot upon the quiet street. Inthat descent he triumphed over the mended shirt—and forgot it.
From Friday afternoon until Monday morning—the brief interval whenlittle girls are reprieved from lessons—he had indeed the world tochoose from; or, to be accurate, the social world of Shadyville, ofKentucky, and of the larger south. Within that radius he might takehis amusements where he would and it was a matter of some amazement tothose less privileged than he that he made such unspectacular use ofhis opportunities. Why, thought they, should Peter Burnett waste hisholidays over a country walk or a copy of Theocritus when he might befashionably golfing, dancing a cotillion or flirting at a house party?Not that Peter neglected these pursuits—being a more astute young manthan his reserved face and tranquil gray eye would indicate—but thathe paused occasionally in the round of them for what his admirersconsidered less worthy diversions.
And he was pausing now, as he loitered along the wide, silent streetwith its trees in pale, sweet leafage and its old-fashioned housesshowing a prim gayety in the bloom of their garden closes.
He loved this street which stretched the length of the town; beginningin homes of a humble sort; breaking, a little farther on, into afeverish importance as it ran along before the doors of the shops;gathering dignity unto itself as it gained the site of the ShadyvilleSeminary; and finally advancing, in the evolution of a social