Minnie sat with her countenance turned fully to the audience, and when Cuthbert Laurance's eyes fell on the cottage front, and upon the face under that cloud of dark elfish locks, he caught his breath, and his eyes seemed almost starting from their sockets. His hand fell heavily on his father's knee, and he groaned audibly.
General Laurance turned and whispered:
"For God's sake, what is the matter? Are you ill?"
There was no answer from the son, who tightened his clutch upon the old man's knee, and watched breathlessly what was passing on the stage.
The scene was shifted, and now the whole façade of the college rose before him, with a pretty picture in the foreground; a tall handsome student, leaning against the trunk of an ancient elm, and talking to the girl who sat on the turf, with a basket of freshly-ironed shirts resting on the grass beside her. The identical straw hat, which Cuthbert had left behind him when summoned home, was upon the student's head, and as the timid shrinking girl glanced up shyly at her companion, Cuthbert Laurance almost hissed in his father's ear: "Great God! It is Minnie herself!"
General Laurance loosened the curtain next the audience, and as the folds swept down, concealing somewhat the figure of his son, he whispered:
"What do you mean? Are you drunk, or mad?"
Cuthbert grasped his father's hand, and murmured:
"Don't you know the college? That is Minnie yonder!"
"Minnie? My son, what ails you? Go home, you are ill."