“It’s none of your business.”
A hearty laugh broke upon the air and floated away over the water. The young lady had spoken in jest, but her words went like a sharp pointed arrow straight down into Zula’s heart.
“You are saucy enough whatever you are.”
“I don’t care if I am,” said Zula. “If you don’t like me all you have to do is to let me alone.”
The young ladies walked on, laughing as they went.
Zula sat for some moments motionless and with eyes looking down into the clear water before her, thinking deeply. The little pebbles, round and white, which lay under the water, seemed to form themselves into tiny shapes. They rose and fell with the soft waves, washing up on the shore, and at last forming a castle—Zula’s castle, the first she had ever built. Tiny fish darted out and through its arches, sprinkling drops about with the dip of their silvery fins. The sunbeams gave a rich golden glow to the little castle so full of bright visions, for Zula saw within its walls sights so beautiful that they fairly made her heart leap for joy. She wondered if some day she would not wander through the halls of such a castle as she saw there. The tears began to drop one by one from the heavy black lashes.
“Oh, I wish I could; how I wish I could. I wonder if some day—but, oh, dear, I can’t—who ever heard of a gypsy——”
Her pencil went down making marks on the little book on her knee.
“Julia Ellis makes the loveliest pictures, without a bad line in them, and I wish, oh, how I wish——”