'I know you haven't. But don't you thinkperhapsyou will have to? Don't you think it will be best?'

'I don't know how, and I never do it, and I do not know what you mean,' Miss Wych answered, sending a column of sparks up the chimney and shewing a few in her own eyes. Which however she did not turn upon Primrose. Primrose eyed the sparks which flew up chimney, with an unrecognizing face.

'You know, Hazel,' she began again, 'your dress is always so beautiful.'

'Well? If my guardians ever find it out, they never object.'

'But you know, Hazel! you know!' exclaimed Primrose in some distress. 'How shall I speak to you? Your guardians would not meddle, I suppose, either of them; but don't you think, now, that Dane will want you to do a little as he does? Do you think he will like you to dress so expensively? and you know you do, Hazel. And he gave up his cigars long ago.'

If Prim could have known all the minute thorns she was sticking into her friend! Hazel was vexed enough to laugh, or to cry, or to do anything, almost.

'I am glad he has,'she said, 'but really I have nothing answering to cigars in all my list of expenses.'

'O Hazel! don't you think so?'

'No. I suppose you like them better than I do.'

'What, cigars?'

'Yes. I should think any man would be thankful to get rid of them. Mr. Falkirk never smokes.'

'I don't like them. But men do. And Dane always smoked such delicious cigarsI used to catch the sweet scent of them often in summer time, when windows were open, and then I knew he was lingering about somewhere near; in the garden or the meadow.' Prim gave the least little unconscious sigh as she spoke. Hazel glanced at her, and her own face grew very thoughtful. The subject of dress was left quite in the distance.

'And he has given all that up,' Prim went on; 'and I thought, perhaps, you had not thought about it. All this about dress, I mean.'

'No, I have not,' said Hazel. 'Especially as I do not know what "all this" is. What to do with cigars seems clear; but my dresses hang in the dark. Never mind,a girl with two guardians is not likely to go very far in any direction.' And Hazel carefully set the tongs in place, and swept up the hearth; and then suddenly caught up her shawl again and wrapped it round her.

'What can have become of that fire?' she said. 'It is an age since we came in. Let's go and see.'

But opening the door revealed only the quiet, clear, starry sky and the still air. No glare of fire; no sound of voices; the crickets seemed to be going on comfortably and much as usual. The air was a trifle more chill, too; and after a few minutes of fruitless watching the two girls came indoors again; but they would not accept Gyda's proposition and go to bed. It was not very late, they said; and once more the three women sat down round the fire to wait. After a time however, Primrose gave it up and went off. Hazel sat still, pondering. Not in her great chair now, but down at the corner of the hearth; with a disturbed mind going over Prim's enigmas. Something about her was sure to displease,that seemed to be as near as she could come to it; and a restless, uneasy sort of pain crept into her heart and over her face. But the minute returning steps were heard outside the door, Hazel darted away to where Prim was already asleep.

Could Prim have been set to talk to her? she thought as she looked. But it was no use to raise that question to-night. Nevertheless the question lifted its own head now and then,that, and one other sorrowful thought which the evening had left: she was ready to join him in singing anythingexcept just what he loved best! And Hazel went to sleep with a sigh upon her lips.

CHAPTER XII.

COFFEE AND BUNS.

Wych Hazel sat watching her friend at her toilet.

'Prim,' she said, 'will you be angry?'

'Me? Angry? No. About what?'

'Because,' said Hazel, 'your dress is not looped right. And I want to alter it.'

Primrose laughed a little. 'What's the use?' she said. 'Next time it will be wrong again. I can't reach the mystery of your loopings. They are loopings, but your dress is never in a bunch anywhere only falls into place in a lovely manner. I can't be like that, Hazel.'

Hazel's busy fingers were making changes.

'There!'she said. 'Now it is a great deal more "beautiful." Do you feel demoralized?'

'Hazel!' said Prim facing round,'did you suppose I mean that? When Dane likes everything to be as beautiful, and as right, every way, as it can be? Look at his horses; and look at his own dress.'

'Ask him to look at your's,'Hazel said with a laugh, and pushing Prim gently before her into the next room.

Breakfast was well seasoned with talk, and the talkers lingered over their meal, until Dr. Arthur declared that if the rest could stay there all day, he could not; and so broke up the sitting.

'Miss Kennedy,' he said as they left the table, 'will you come to the door a moment, before you put on your hat, and let me see your eyes?'

'See my eyes!'Hazel followed him doubtfully.

'Yes, I want to know how they look now they are open. How nearly do you feel like yourself again?' he said, in the midst of a somewhat close and earnest examination.

'I am perfectly well, thank you.'

' "Perfectly well."For instance, did you thoroughly enjoy riding on horseback yesterday?'

In spite of the evident good faith of the doctor's question, Wych Hazel's cheeks gave such instant swift answer, that he was fain to turn his eyes away.

'Not the October air,' he went on gravely, 'nor the coloured leaves, nor the sunshine; nor even the exhilaration; but the exercise. How is that, compared with a year ago?'

'I am not quite so strong for it, I think,' Hazel answered unwillingly.

'Imperfectly well,' said Dr. Arthur. 'And for what are you most inclined when the ride is over?'but again the tell-tale face warned him of dangerous ground.

'I have not been riding much'she said deprecatingly. 'I am all out of practice.'

'That goes for something. Always supposing that it always used to be so when you happened to be "out of practice." '

Hazel was silent.

'These guardians!' said Dr. Arthur with some emphasis. 'I cannot imagine what Mr. Falkirk was thinking of, when he kept you away all summer, letting you wear yourself out!'

'He did not keep me. I kept myself,' said Wych Hazel.

'Did you! Suppose Mr. Falkirk had kept himself here?'

Rollo came to the conference at this point. He knew the reason of his friend's care, for he had questioned him with relation to his professional curiosity the evening before. But he had a clue to Wych Hazel's three days' sleep, which Dr. Arthur could not have.

'Dr. Maryland, I thought you had more sense!' said the girl impatiently. 'The last time you saw me, you said the only thing was to let me have my own way.'

'Depends a little upon what direction the "way" takes,' said Dr. Arthur. 'You don't want another sleep, do you?'

'Thank you,I have had one.'

'Had one!' Dr. Arthur exclaimed. 'Not like that?'

'Not precisely like that,' said Hazel demurely. 'I have had several different ones.'

Dr. Arthur laughed, and gave up his research.

'I begin to comprehend Mr. Falkirk!' he said. 'Dane, if you can brave this lady's displeasure, I wish you would see that she does not overtax herself for three months to come. Nor then, without my permission.'

'But it is miles and miles from here to Chickaree!' said Miss Wych as she ran in.

The inconvenience of having two guardians is, that when you have got rid of one you have to face the other. And that other had to be faced at the dinner table to-day. It was well that the twelve miles' ride had not taken down Hazel's strength below the mischief point. Rollo, it must be remarked, had been obliged to gallop back again after very slight tarrying.

'Good evening, Miss Hazel,' said her elder guardian as he met her in the dining room. 'I think I have not seen you since this time yesterday.'

'A little later than this, sir. It was after dinner when we parted.'

'Quite so. Why did we not meet at breakfast? I was here. You were not.'

'No, sir. That seems to have been the reason.'

'Why were you not at home?'

'Well, sir, I was in charge of my other authority, and could not get home till he said the word.'

Mr. Falkirk surveyed his ward.

'Miss Hazel, your motions are usually determined by your own will, and by nothing else,in my experience.'

'My dear sir, if you remember your experience so imperfectly, it cannot do you much good. Have I ever been allowed to go anywhere alone?'

'Why did not Rollo bring you home in proper time?'very shortly.

'First there was a man in trouble, and then a mill,' said Miss Wych, composedly pouring water from her carafe. 'And so of course such small affairs as women had to wait.'

'What was the matter?'

'The man met with an accident. The mill was set on fire. But both were cared for satisfactorilyyou need not be uneasy, Mr. Falkirk. Two such energetics as Mr. Rollo and Dr. Arthur suffice for all the common events of life.'

'And you,where were you?'

'Miss Maryland and I, sir, were summarily bestowed at Mrs. Borresen's for safe keeping.'

'Who is Mrs. Borresen?'

'My dear Mr. Falkirk!if you only would stir about a little you would learn so much!' said Wych Hazel. 'Mrs. Borresen is a quite remarkable person of foreign birth who lives near Morton Hollow.'

'Rollo's old nurse!' said Mr. Falkirk.

Wych Hazel bowed her head with extreme sedateness and went on with her dinner. Mr. Falkirk made a gesture of extreme impatience.

'It seems to me, Miss Hazel, that your other guardian had time to see you safe home, before allowing himself to be claimed by his own affairs. If you had not discretion enough to come, he should have had enough to bring you.'

'It needs valour as well as discretion to run away from one's guardians,' said Miss Kennedy lifting her brows. 'I should have been quite happy, sir, I am sure, to ride home alone.'

"Why didn't he bring you?' growled the elder guardian. 'Or why didn't you make him bring you?'

'Yes, sir. Did you ever try to make Mr. Rollo do anything?'

'Quite out of order!' grumbled Mr. Falkirk; 'quite out of order! Miss Hazel, it may need valour and discretion both, as you seem to intimate, but I must beg that you will not have the like thing happen again. If you cannot get home in proper time, I prefer that you should not ride with him. I thought the fellow knew better!'

A glance, lightning-swift, from under the dark lashes fell upon Mr. Falkirk's unconscious face. The girl waited a little before she made reply.

'How am I to know beforehand, Mr. Falkirk? Mills are uncertain things. And men. You are really sure of nothing but women in this world.'

'What do you mean about a mill burning?' came very deep out of Mr. Falkirk's throat.

'Some of the Charteris men set it on fire. The mill was not burned, because watch had been kept; and at the first sign of fire all hands went to work taking out cotton bales till the fire was reached. There was something of a bonfire outside.'

'Hm. How much loss?'

'Not much. A thousand or two.'

Mr. Falkirk went no further into the subject, or into any other, till the dessert had been taken away and he was fingering the nuts. Mr. Falkirk took no dessert. And in the midst of cracking a hard nut, effort availed to crack something else.

'Do we go to town this winter, Miss Hazel?'

'I have taken no thought whatever about the winter, sir.'

'Do you intend to stay here?'

'I thought we agreed, sir, to let the winter question wait?'

'I made no such agreement, Miss Hazel. On the contrary, if we let the question wait, there will be no house to receive you when you make up your mind to go.'

'Then we will wait.'

'No, Miss Hazel, if you please I will have your decision. If it makes no difference to you, it makes some to me. Either here or New Yorkbut you must say which.'

'O if you put me in a corner, Mr. Falkirk, I shall stay here,' said Wych Hazel.

'I suppose so. And now, Miss Hazel, will you kindly go a little further and give me your reasons?'

'My dear Mr. Falkirk, you know we agreed long ago, that between you and me reasons should be left to take care of themselves. Do let the winter question rest!'

'I thought we agreed long ago that between you and me there should be confidence,' said her guardian somewhat bitterly.

Now Mr. Falkirk was unreasonable, but it is not in the nature of men to know when they are unreasonable. So making a great and ill-adjusted effort with his nut-cracker, it slipped and did Mr. Falkirk's finger some harm, instead of the nut. Mr. Falkirk dipped his finger into cold water, wrapped it in his handkerchief, and went off, disgusted with the world generally.

'We never did!' thought Hazel to herself. 'I plainly told him it could not be.' But for all that she felt just a little bit troubled and hurt.

Four days of storms, during which Mr. Falkirk passed himself off for sugar and salt, and even Mr. Rollo was somewhat hindered of his pleasure, ended at last in a brilliant Saturday afternoon. But though Wych Hazel did send some wistful glances out of the window, she knew perfectly well there could be no coming from Morton Hollow that night. Still, the feminine mind is good at devices; and Miss Kennedy was not the first girl who (for the nonce) has enacted the part of Mahomet. The mountain could not stir,therefore

She thought it all out, sitting opposite to Mr. Falkirk at dinner; and when that gentleman had taken his departure, the young mistress of the house fell into a sudden state of activity; her last move being to smother herself in a huge dingy cloak, akin to those worn by the mill people in their improved condition.

'Look at me, Byo,' she said, pulling the rough hood up over her silky curls.

'My dear,' began Mrs. Bywank,'Miss Wych,if Mr. Rollo should see you!'

'He would see nothing but my cloak.'

'My dear, I'm not so sure. He has wonderful sharp eyes. And you don't wear your cloak like a mill girl.'

'Don't I look like a new hand?' said Hazel laughing.

'And if he should find out, what would he think!' said Mrs. Bywank.

'He would think you had a cold and couldn't come,' said Wych. 'There's the gig!'and down she ran, slipping out unseen to join Reo in the darkness.

Riding in an old gig was rather a new experience. The way was still, starlight, and lonely, until they came out into the neighbourhood of the mills. When the lights were visible, and a certain confused buzz of still distant voices gave token of the lively state of the population in the Hollow, Hazel and her faithful attendant left the gig and went forward on foot.

The Charteris mills were silent and dark; the stir was ahead, where a cluster of lights shewed brilliantly through the darkness; and soon Wych Hazel and Reo found themselves in the midst of a moving throng. A large shed, it was hardly better, open to the street and to all comers, was the place of illumination, and the centre of savoury odours which diffused themselves refreshingly over the whole neighbourhood. Coffee, yes certainly Mr. Rollo's coffee and hot buns were on hand there; and truly they began to be on hand more literally among the crowd. Wych Hazel loitered and looked and kept herself out of the lamp shine as well as she could. Men and women were going in and coming out, eating and drinking, talking and jesting; there was a pleasant let-up to business in the Hollow; it looked like a fair, except that there was no buying and selling other than the viands. There were long deal tables in the shed, besieged by the applicants for buns and coffee, and served by women stationed behind the tables. The crowd was orderly, though very lively. Reo's curiosity and admiration were immense; I think he would have tried the buns for himself, if he had not been in close attendance upon his mistress. Women came out from the shed guarding a pile of the hot buns in their hands; others stood by the tables taking their supper; men came out and lounged about talking and eating, with a mug in one hand and a bun in the other. To anybody that knew Morton Hollow it was a pleasant sight. It spoke of a pause from grinding care and imbruting toil; a gleam of hope in the work-a-day routine. The men were all more or less washed and brushed up; for changing their dress there had been no time.

Hazel was afraid to linger too long or scan too closely; she passed on to the mill with the throng, waited near the door until the reader went in, passing so close that Hazel could have touched him. Then she followed and took her place at the end of a form near the door. That was policy.

The reading room was the huge bare apartment where the fire had been laid, and tracked, a few nights before. The rafters still shewed some smoke, and there was a less number of bales piled up at the end of the room than when Hazel had seen it the first time. Lamps hung now from the beams overhead, enough of them to give a fair illumination; for as Rollo explained to her afterwards, he wanted to have a view of his hearers. Their view of him was secured by a well arranged group of burners in that quarter. The audience room was as rough as the audience.

It was a strange experience for the little lady of Chickaree. In the midst of all that crowd of mill hands, with their coarse dresses and unkempt heads and head gear, she was in a part of the world very far from her own. A still, respectful crowd they were, however. Looking beyond and over them, to the circle of lights at the end of the cotton bales, she could just see Dane's head, where he was standing and speaking to some one; then presently he mounted upon his rude rostrum and the light illumined his whole figure.

'He ain't keerful about shewin' hisself,'said a drawling native voice in Wych Hazel's neighbourhood. 'Hain't no objection to folks' reck'nin' his inches.'

'He's baulder'n I'd loike to be' said another voice, Wych Hazel could not guess of what nationality.

'A can bear it,' answered a woman. 'I'd loike to see you a standin' up for your picter, Jim!'

'He don't mind!' said a brisk lass. 'You bet, he knows all about it. Don't he, though!'

'Is he a married mon?'

'Na, he's got nobody to look arter him.'

'He don't mind that, ayther.'

'He's mighty onconsarned, anyhow,' said the first speaker. 'Lawk, I never could be a orator.'

'Don't, then,' said the girl. 'You hush, or he'll hear.'

Rollo did them justice, as far as not minding anything went. His first action after taking his stand, was to fold his arms and take a somewhat prolonged survey of the company. The quick gray eyes came everywhere; did they know Hazel? It appeared not; for after a few minutes of this silent survey, Rollo bade his audience 'good evening' and began his work.

He gave them in the first place the principal items of the week's news out of several papers which he had at hand. This, it was plain, was an extremely popular part of the entertainment. He read and talked, explaining where it was necessary, sometimes responding to a question from some one in the crowd. The papers were both English and German, American and foreign; the bits of intelligence carefully chosen to interest and to stimulate interest. This part of the programme took up something over a half hour. The next thing was the story if the "Chimes." And here also the reading was exceedingly successful. Knowing his hearers more thoroughly than is the privilege of most readers, Rollo could give them a word of help just where it was necessary to make them understand the author; briefly, and only as it was needed; for the rest, he made the story speak to their hearts. Perhaps the simplicity of his aim, which had no regard whatever to his own prominence in the performance, gave him an advantage over most people who read in public; perhaps Rollo was uncommonly gifted; but Wych Hazel certainly thought, when she had time to think about it, that it was no wonder Miss Powder or anybody else should make parties to come and hear him, and rather wondered the whole countryside were not there. And as for the rough audience who were present, they were entranced. They forgot themselves. They forgot everything in the world but Tiny Tim and his father and all the humble experiences of the family; and tears and laughter alternately testified to what a degree the reader had them all in his hand. Hazel for her part laughed and cried when the rest did,and when they did not.

Just as this part of the reading was finished, there came a slight disturbance down near the door; but all that appeared to the reader was that one of the mill girls got up and went out.

'Where's the master?' a small frightened child had said, peering in. 'I wants him.'

'Well you can't have him,' answered the rough cloak imperiously. 'Don't you see he's busy?'

Whereupon the small girl lifted up her voice in lamentation, and was instantly smothered in the cloak and swept out of the mill; neither one appearing on those boards again that night. But the reading went on, and the hours too; and it was eleven o'clock, all told, before the audience were dismissed. Coming out at last into the starlight darkness, Mr. Rollo ran full up against Dr. Arthur Maryland.

'Arthur!What now?'

'Dane, you can tell meWhere is the Patrick who has no wife? I've been to six and they're all happy men.'

'Patrick? who has lost his wife? It is Rafferty. What do you want him for?'

'Something the matter there.'

'What?Come, I'll shew you the way. What is it?'

'A child hurt. The father away drinking, the young ones at home fighting,as near as I can make it out. This one got a fall.'

Rollo had used his voice a good deal that evening, namely, for two and a half consecutive hours. He said scarcely a word more until they got to the house in question; but as he went he thought what he would do with the gin shops whenever he should get control in the Hollow. The cabin of the wifeless Patrick was high up the valley and high up on the bank, a short way after all. A little stream of light came out to meet them from the open door; and once in line with this, Dr. Arthur stopped short with a suppressed exclamation, and Rollo looked up.

The door had probably been left open of intent for air; for on some low seat in the middle of the floor sat Wych Hazel, still muffled partly in the cloak, which she had not taken time to throw off. The hood had fallen back, and the cloak fell away on either side from her silken folds and white laces; Hazel's attention was wholly absorbed by the child on her lap. A little tattered figure lay with its head on the young lady's breast; while both Wych Hazel's hands, the one passed round the child as well as the other, were clasped tight around one little arm. So they sat, quite still,the child's eyes upon her face; while a small circle of great admiration stood around; fingers in mouth, hands behind back, wholly absorbed in the vision or spell-bound with the voice. For she was softly singing.

'You'll never be in Adam's case of destitution,that's one thing!' was Dr. Arthur's comment, as his friend sprang past him into the cabin. Then however, like a wise man, postponing other things to business, Rollo only demanded calmly what the matter was? Hazel had not expected him, and there was a look of surprise and a minute's flush; then her thoughts too went back to business.

'I think her arm is broken. I have been holding it in place.'

'And she let you?' queried Dr. Arthur.

'I would do it. She is more quiet now.'

'Sixteen carats fine!' said Dr. Arthur. 'Half the women I know would have dropped the arm the moment they saw me, and nine- tenths of the others would not have touched it at all! Now let me see.'

But first a change was made. Rollo took the child into his own arms. It was done too swiftly and skilfully for the poor little creature to make any objection, but its dismay and displeasure were immediately proclaimed. The new hands that held it were however both kind and strong, and the master's voice was already known, even by these little ones. So the worst was soon over, thanks to the firmness that had kept the arm quiet till the doctor came. It was true; she "had the fight in her," as Dane had once said; though now the woman was taking her revenge, and Hazel sat behind the others with blanched cheeks. Dr. Arthur glanced at her once or twice.

' "Ever so far away to Chickaree"!' he said,'I should think it was! Dane, can you find a substitute to watch this child to-night?'

'I'll see to that,' said his friend briefly; and laying the child out of his arms as soon as its arm was made secure, he went to Wych Hazel, pulled her hood on again, and drawing her hand through his arm took her out of the cabin. Then asked her 'how she expected to get home?'

'O Reo is here, somewhere.'

'With the carriage?"

'With an incognito gig.'

Rollo put her into a chair, stationed Dr. Arthur to keep ward over her, and went to look for Reo. It seems that in the interest of the reading Reo had missed the episode of his mistress's leaving the assembly room, and had thereafter been wholly without a clue by which to seek her. Near the mill Rollo found him, and presently brought up the gig to Patrick Rafferty's cottage. Unsuspiciously Wych Hazel allowed herself to be put into it. Then, standing with the reins in his hand, Dane spoke to the doctor.

'It is late, Arthur; come up to my house and I'll take care of you. Reo, take the road straight up to Mrs. Borresen's.'

With which he jumped into the gig and put the horse in motion; with such good will that before Dr. Arthur could get to the foot of the hill the gig had climbed to Gyda's door, and Rollo had lifted Wych Hazel out.

'But I did not mean to come here!' she said dismayfully. 'I was thinking of something else! Mr. Rollowhat made you do so?'

'The obvious necessity of the case.'

'But I must go home.'

'To-morrow.'

He staid no further question. He opened the gate and led the little lady across the few steps to the door.

'Gyda,' said he as they went in, 'let us have some coffee and anything else that can be had quickly. Three people wanting it.' And with that he went into the next room for the cushions.

'I shall stand for an upholsterer one of these days,' he remarked, as he arranged and prepared Wych Hazel's easy chair. 'There! Now!'

He unfastened and threw off the rough cloak, much as if he did not like it; took Wych Hazel's hands and put her in her place.

'What have you got to say to me?' he queried softly.

Hazel felt extremely shy and discomposed at the course things had taken. It had been no part of her plan to have her escapade known to any but the old servants at home; and here she was, not only discovered but carried off,and that with Mr. Falkirk's strictures still sounding in her ears. Yet her first words went to another point.

'You should not touch me,' she said with a gentle little push,'I have not washed my face. And you know I had to use every means I could think of to quiet the child.'

Hazel shivered a little, thinking what the screams had been at first when she took the case in hand. Dane's eyes laughed and sparkled, but he only disregarded her admonitions, and remarked that she 'did not answer him?'

'Mr. Rollo, I must go home. Mr. Falkirk will be so vexed.'

'What else have you got to say me?'

'What do you want to hear about?' said Hazel demurely. 'I liked the reading very much,all that I heard of it. And the people seemed to like you.'

'Did you think I would not find you out?'

'And you did not!' she said triumphantly.

'I should have found you out in another half hour. I saw you, and you bothered me very much, but the lights were in my eyes. Did you hope I would not see you, Hazel?'

She laughed gaily. 'Of course I hoped that! How did I "bother" you, please?'

'Something I did not understand. Gyda, won't you take Miss Kennedy where she can wash her face?'

Gyda led the way to her kitchen, a little detached building connected with the house by a covered way. It was warm and light with fire and full of savoury odours from the cookery going on. Here the young lady was supplied with a bowl of water and a napkin, and Hazel came back very much refreshed.

It was now half-past twelve o'clock and more. Dr. Arthur was come, and there were preparations on foot for supper. Reo had come to, and was sent to Gyda's little kitchen to get some refreshment, while the others supped.

'Now,' said Rollo, as he gave Wych Hazel some porridge and filled her cup, 'you may begin and give an account of yourself.'

'Autocratic,' said Hazel. 'I am no longer a mill girl, Mr. Rollo.'

'You came into my dominions with my livery. There's no help for you now.'

'Well,'said Hazel,'the only drawback to the pleasure of my drive over from Chickaree, was the state of mind in which I had left Mrs. Bywank.'

'Well?' said Rollo, proceeding to take care of the doctor's cup. 'Go on. Arthur and I are very curious.'

'After that, I wanted a bun, and saw no invitation to strangers.'

'You were there, were you! Isn't it a good institution?'

'Veryfor people who are not strangers. Reo and I devoured things with our eyes for some time. Then I When the reading began, I was in my place.'

'I should say, you were in somebody else's place. Never mind! If it was not so late, I'd send down and get a bun for you.'

'What came in between the "Then" and the "When"?' said Dr. Arthur. 'If one may inquire. Mere blank space?'

'Not quite,' said Hazel laughing and colouring. 'Just private, scientific business. I was testing theories.'

'We are both interested in that, the doctor and I,' said Dane. 'Theories, and scientific business. Pray explain, Hazel.'

'I once heard a short lecture on magnetism,' said Miss Wych, all grave except the gleam in her eyes; 'and it occurred to me to put it to the proof. So I stood by the door and saw the people go in.'

Dr. Arthur laughed, but asked no further questions.

'Your true lovers of science are always ready to venture a good deal in the pursuit of it,' observed Dane drily.

Wych Hazel's lips curled with mischief.

'When I got in,' she said, 'before the reading, I heard a good deal about the reader. Most of it striking, and some of it new.'

'That at least all may hear,' remarked Dr. Arthur. 'Science may have its reserves; but public news about Dane!'

'It's very old indeed,' said the person concerned. 'Only new to this witness. May be safely passed over.'

If Mr. Rollo was good at reading faces, he might see that remarks about him were considered quite too much her own personal property to be repeated to anybody in the world but himself. Wych Hazel sat silent, stirring her coffee.

'We are ready to hear the rest,' he remarked with a smile. 'Go on to the broken arm. How did you get hold of that?'

'One of the children came for you. And somebody had to go,' she answered simply.

'And "somebody" had to keep the broken arm in place, I suppose. But how came you to think of doing that?' said Rollo, who all the while was looking after the comfort of his two guests in his own fashion of quick-eyed ministry.

'I did not, till I had the child in my lap,' said Hazel; 'and then I remembered all of a sudden something in one of my old Edgeworth story books. So I tried, and succeeded.'

'I wish every one read story books to as good purpose,' said Dr. Arthur. 'There is no describing from what you saved the child. But at first I suppose she made great resistance?'

'Very great.'Hazel did not want to enlarge upon that part of the subject. And here Reo entered.

'Ha, Reo! are you made up for your journey already?' said Rollo. 'You can report to Mrs. Bywank that Miss Wych was too much fatigued to take the drive home; and bring the carriage over in the morning.'

Wych Hazel looked up, but her courage failed her for a protest. She was obliged to let the order stand.

The fire was bright, the coffee was excellent, the little party so oddly thrown together were happy in mutual confidence and sympathy. Such hours are not too common, and a certain kindly recognition of this one sat upon every face. Gyda was busy preparing a room for Miss Kennedy and had not joined them.

'How does the work of the world look to you, Arthur, from this corner?' said Dane, when they had subsided a little from supper to the consideration of each other.

'Every spot of true Christian work is a centre,' said his friend. 'The "corners" are for darknessnot light. Work is the most enticing thing in the world to me, Dane!'

'Gyda's fireside was the corner I meant,it's not dark just now! and I was thinking, that from this nook of quiet the work looks easy. So it is! It is a hand to hand and foot to foot battle; but it is easy to follow the captain that one loves.'

'I don't know that it is always easy,' said Dr. Arthur; 'but it can be done. Once in a while, you know, we are sent to carry a redoubt with only his orders before us. The Lord himself seems to be in quite another part of the field.'

'That is, to those who do not know.'

'Of course. I speak only of the seeming. But I like the fight, and I like the struggle. I like to measure battlements and prepare my scaling ladders, and lead a forlorn hope. It suits me, I believe.'

'Battlements?' Hazel repeated. 'Do you mean heights of difficulty?'

'Guarded by depths of sin,' said Dr. Arthur.

Hazel looked from one to the other. Yes, she could like that too, if she were a man. How much could she do, being a woman?

'And that is all seeming too, Arthur,' his friend went on. 'Really, the fighter need never be out of that "feste Burg." I was thinking just now, not only that work looks easy, but that it looks small. Individual effort, I mean; the utmost that any one man can do. It is a mere speck. The living waters that shall be "a river to swim in," are very shallow yet; and where the fishers are to stand and cast their nets, it is a waste of barrenness. You have never been on the shores of the Dead Sea, Arthur; you do not know how a little thread of green on the mountain side shews where a spring of sweet water runs down through the waste.'

'What then, Mr. Rollo?' said Wych Hazel.

'It is such a tiny thread of life upon the universal brown death.'

'Is that what the world looks like to you?' said Hazel, wondering.

'And the work is even far smaller than that, if you look at it in its minute details. Did you ever read the life of Agnes Jones, Arthur?'

'Yes.'

'Prim lent me the book; and I found a good word in it the other day. The writer says, I cannot give you the exact words,"If we do every little thing that comes to us, God may out of our many littles make a great whole." Therein lies the very truth of our work. It is so in Morton Hollow. Not building schoolhouses or making villages; anybody can do that; it is the word of interest to one, the word of sympathy to another; the holding a broken arm; giving help and refreshment in individual cases. Love, in short, like the sun, working softly and everywhere. As those threads of green on the mountain side are made up of multitudinous tiny leaves and mosses, nourished by countless invisible drops of spray.'

'Working in all sorts of ways'said the Doctor; while Hazel sat thinking of the green that was beginning to line the banks of Morton Hollow. 'You may notice that a real spring goes literally wherever it can. Men may wall it in with stone channels, or force it into the air; but let it alone, it follows every possible opening. The deep main stream, and the little side rills, and the single drops that go each to a single leaf.'

Rollo looked up and smiled. 'There is Gyda coming to fetch you, Hazel.'

'Well,' said Hazel. 'And you will go on talking all sorts of things that I ought to hear.'

She rose up and stood looking down into the fire. The other two rose also and stood looking at her. It was a pretty picture. Gyda, a little apart, watched them all with her little bright eyes.

'But,' Hazel began again,'to do that,for every little drop to do thatthere must be a head of water. It is not the mere trickling down of something which happens to be at the top!'Whereupon the little fingers took an extra knot.

'Each drop may do the ministry of one, may it not?' said Rollo. 'You need not count the drops. The only thing is that they be living water.'

'Yes, the living water comes with a will. I remember,in Mme. Lasalle's brook,how busy the drops were. Not in a hurry, but in such sweet haste.'

'True!' said Dr. Arthur. 'Each with a clear bright purpose, if not a plan.'

'Perhaps, best not the plan,' said Rollo.

She stood gravely thinking for a moment, then looked up and shook hands with Dr. Arthur, wishing him good night. But no words came when she gave her hand to Mr. Rollo; onlyperhaps in default of wordsa beautiful, vivid blush.

The room to which the old Norsewoman conducted her was a very plain little place, with whitewashed walls and the simplest of furniture. Gyda manifested some concern lest her guest should suffer for want of a fire. 'But the gentlemen had to have the other room,' she said.

'O the fire is no matter,' said Hazel. 'But where do you sleepwith such a houseful?'

'I have my little nest just by, my lady. I'd be glad to keep it! And yet this is a strange place for my lad to have his home; and it's been his home now for a year, nearly. How much longer will I keep him, my lady?'

Gyda asked the most tremendous questions with a sort of privileged simplicity; she looked now for her answer.

'Keep him?'Hazel repeated the words in a maze.

'Yes, my lady. I know I must lose my lad from this home; but when is it to be?'

'A great whileI don't know,nobody knows,' said Hazel very much disturbed. 'Nobody thinks anything about it yet. So you need not even recollect it, Mrs. Borresen.'

Gyda looked at her with a tender, incredulous, pleased smile upon her face. 'Do you think he will wait a great while, my lady?' she said. And then she came up and kissed Wych Hazel's hand, and went away.

CHAPTER XIII.

UNDER THE CHESTNUT TREES.

Mr. Falkirk did not go out to breakfast that Sunday morning; and no one at Chickaree but the two old retainers knew how Miss Wych had tired herself, nor where she had rested overnight. Monday came and went in uneventful rain, and Tuesday was the day of the party in the woods.

A simple enough affair,just chestnuts and lunch; but rarely had the young lady of the domain been so hard to please in the matter of her dress. For words do leave their footsteps, drive them out as we will; and this Prim's words had done. Not quite according to Prim's intent, however; for the one clear idea in Wych Hazel's mind, was that Mr. Rollo was (or would be when he noticed it at all) dissatisfied with her dress. And that was precisely the line in which she had never before met criticism. Hazel took off one colour after another, until Phoebe was in despair and Mrs. Bywank turned away and smiled out of the window.

'And dear me, ma'am,' cried Phoebe at last, 'there comes a carriage!'

Hazel looked towards the window, caught the old housekeeper's eye, and suddenly embellishing her proceedings with a pair of scarlet cheeks, she opened another press, seized the first white dress that came to hand, and put it on without more ado. A dainty white piqu, all on the wing with delicate embroideries and lace, and broad sash ends of the colour of red gold.

'But Miss Wych!' Mrs. Bywank remonstrated. 'The wind is very fresh.'

Wych Hazel made another plunge after sealskin jacket and cap; turned over a box of gloves till she matched her ribbands; gave Mrs. Bywank a laugh and a flash from her eyes, and was off. But that carriage it seemed had rolled by, and there was no one at the meeting place in the woods when the girl seated herself there to await her guests.

' "Do you think Dane will like to have you dress as you do?" 'so ran her thoughts. 'Well,how do I dress?'

She sat looking into the soft silence of the October air, feeling that for her life was changing fast. The old bounds to her action had somehow now stretched out to take in her will; her own pleasure now often in the mood to wait, uncertain of its choice, till she knew the pleasure of somebody else. There was the least bit of rebellion at this here and there; and yet on the whole Wych Hazel by no means wished herself back in the old times when nobody cared. Ah how lonely she had been!and how full the world seemed now, with that secret sense of happiness pervading all things! Meanwhile, as Prim had said, what was she going to do about dress?

It happened that the first interruption to her meditations came from a visiter who did not intend to be a guest. No less than Gov. Powder; a portly, gentlemanly, somewhat imposing personage, who was less known to society than were his wife and daughters. However, without wife and daughters, here he was.

'Good morning, my dear, good morning!' he began blandly, shaking Wych Hazel's hand with a sort of paternal-official benignity. 'Your guardian has not come upon the scene yet? I thought I should find him here. Why how cool you look, for October!'

'Yes, sirI like to look cool,' said Hazel, conscious that she could not always accomplish the feat. 'Especially when I have the world on my hands. Just now I am undefended., Gov. Powder; but I suppose both my guardians will be here by and by.'

'What do you do with two guardians, eh? Keep 'em both in good humour?'

'One at a time is as much as I often try for,' said Hazel. 'But Gov. Powder, I wish you would let me have a little fun right over the heads of them both.'

'I?' said the ex-governor, somewhat surprised. 'Eh? It does not often happen to me now-a-days to have the honour of such an appealunless from my own mad daughters. In what direction do you want me to come over your guardians, Miss Kennedy? and which of them?'

'O it is nothing mad at all, in my case,' said Hazel. 'And neither of them must know. But will you walk a little way down the wood with me, sir? I do not want them even to see a consultation.'

A man must be much set in his own purposes who would not go more than 'a little way' after such a voice; and Gov. Powder was but an ordinary man. So, finding the white ruffles a very pretty sort of a convoy, the ex-governor strolled down among the golden hickories and ruddy oaks, and never once guessed that he had a siren at his elbow.

'Last winter,' Hazel began, speaking fast now, to keep pace with the minutes, 'I had quite a large legacy left to me.'

'Somebody who wanted to protect you against misfortune, eh?' said the governor.

'Or who did not believe in guardians, sir; for mine were to have no control over it whatever.'

'I see!' said the governor. 'Pocket money to purchase sugar-plums.'

'But perhaps you know, sir, that we girls like sugar-plums of many sorts.'

'Miss Kennedy, do you know my daughters?'

'Well sir,' said Hazel weighing her words, wondering to herself whether diplomats get along without telling fibs; and if they do, how they do,'it would be quite a novelty of a bonbon to invest this money in some splendid way, all by myself. Not the whole of it, you know, sir,only a few thousands.' She was so eager! and so terribly afraid of shewing her eagerness.

'That is a sort of bonbon that is very tempting to old fellows like me; but, pardon me, I should think it was more in Mr. Falkirk's way than in yours?'

'Mr. Falkirk may admire it afterwards, if he chooses, but I want to make the investment. And I learned from somebody,' said Hazel, careful of her words, "that the best thing I could do, was to buy that bit of land of yours, Gov. Powder, lying just at the head of the Hollow. It is not worth more than twenty thousand, is it?' she went on, suggestively. 'And I was told, sir, that you were ready to dispose of it.'

'Somebody spoke too fast,' said the governor, looking unmistakably surprised this time. 'Really, I am in no hurry to dispose of that piece of land. Its value is in its water power. You don't want to build mills, do you?'

'No, sir,the whole of my legacy would not cover that. And I would rather not invest more than twenty thousand at first.'

'Twenty thousand' has a pleasant sound to a man with 'mad' daughters, and other expenses! Nevertheless the governor looked steadily into the face of facts.

'My dear Miss Kennedy, I must remark to you, that if you do not want to put mills on that ground, it would be a very poor investment for your twenty thousand. The water power is all the value there. And Paul Charteris has been trying to get it of me for his own purposes. Now I know what he wants; but I do not see what you want with land in Mill Hollow.'

'Why Governor Powder,' said Hazel, 'Mr. Falkirk would go to sleep in luxury, if he could only see why I want things! One might as well be a manor Mr. Paul Charterisat once!'

'Isn't Paul Charteris a man?' inquired Gov. Powder laughing. Hazel laughed too, but returned to the charge.

'I shall not invest in him,' she said, 'even so much as an opinion. What I want is the land, and the water power, and the fun.'

Gov. Powder stepped back and took a survey of the little lady.

'You mustn't break your teeth with a bonbon,' said he. 'Suppose you let me speak to my friend Mr. Falkirk about it?'

'No indeed, sir! Mr. Falkirk never approves of anything he does not suggest himself. All great men have their weak points, Gov. Powder,' said Wych Hazel.

'Well, let us say Rollo then. I think he is a wild man with his own fortune; but I reckon he would look out for yours. By the way! he may want the land for himself? eh?'

'Of course he may,' said Wych Hazel, 'but not half so much as I do. To consult him, would be saying no to me, Gov. Powder. And you know you are going to say yes.'

'I don't understand doing business with ladies!' said the poor governor, shaking his head. 'I can get along with my own sort. Miss Kennedy, there are certain complications, which I cannot explain to you. Paul Charteris has been at me to get those very acres that you want. What would he say, if I threw him over and sold them to you? I guess you must let me settle with him first.'

'Tell him you sold the land to somebody who offered more,' said Hazel. 'That is easy enough. How much would he give, sir?'

'Ah but, the thing is, there are complications,there are complications,' repeated the governor. 'Give? He don't want to give above the half of your twenty thousand; and I couldn't in conscience take the whole. The land is not worth so much as that, Miss Kennedy. But young ladies don't understand complications,' he added with a smile. 'I can't just throw Paul over, without a word.'

'Push him off,' said Hazel. 'Nobody can teach me anything about complications!Push him off, sir. Just give him a negative and do not say why.'

'What do you want it for?'

'Just now,' said Hazel, 'I want to get ahead of Mr. Charteris.'

'I may tell him I have an offer of twelve thousand?' said the governor, who was badly in want of money.

'Certainly, sir. If you will first say three words to make sure Mr. Charteris shall not get ahead of me.'

'Well, well!' said the governor'here come people, Miss Kennedy,he shall not get ahead of you. At any rate, I'll settle nothing with him without letting you know. He can't outbid you you're pretty safe. Do I understand that you want this affair kept private, between you and me?'

'O yes, sir!' cried Hazel softly,'it is to be terribly private. And if you will only let women vote, Gov. Powder, I will certainly vote for you.Mr. Falkirk, if you knew how long Gov. Powder has been impatient for you, you would be grieved to have left him so long with me!'And Miss Kennedy flitted off, with eyes in a sparkle that was dangerous to come near. I think Gov. Powder's eyes sparkled a little too, poor man; they had grown a little dull with looking so long into ways and means.

And after this little bit of business, the pleasure of the day set in with a flood tide. You have all seen such days. Nature had laid out a wonderful entertainment, to begin with; and put no hindrances in the way; and it appeared that every creature came with spirits and hopes on tiptoe. Dresses were something captivating, so much attention and invention had been exercised upon them. And the facilities for flirtations which the scene and the sport afforded, were most picturesque. The parties in the trees could display their agility; the parties on the ground could show their costumes in charming attitudes. For a time the care of the hostess was needed in assigning the people to their proper posts of usefulness or pleasure; but when all were come and all was in train, the thing would run itself, and Wych Hazel became as free as anybody else.

'Look here,' cried Josephine Powder, 'I've been waiting all day to speak to you. Nobody wants you now, Hazel; come here and sit down. I'm in awful trouble.'

Wych Hazel sat down and pulled off her gloves, and then the glittering fingers went diving into her pocket after chestnuts.

'Well?' she said,'what now? There is a big onetry that.'

'I used to like chestnuts once,' said Josephine looking at it. 'I wonder if there'll be fun in anything ever any more for me?'

'Depends a good deal upon where you look for it,' said Miss Kennedy, biting her nut. 'Are you playing pendulum still, for pity's sake?'

'Pendulum? No. I'm fixed. I've accepted John Charteris.'

'Have you!' said Hazel, thinking that her business interview had been just in time. 'How much down, Josephine? and how much on bond and mortgage?'

'What do you mean?'

'The trouble is, you can never foreclose,' said Hazel. 'Are the diamonds satisfactory?'

'You are not,' said Josephine energetically. 'Now be good, Hazel! I came to you, because I thought you were the only creature that would have a little feeling for me. Everybody else says it's such a grand thing.'

'Well, I have some feeling for you, and so I don't say it. Much more feeling than patience. Why do you sell yourself, if you do not like the price, Josephine Powder?'

'What can one do?' said the girl disconsolately.

'Let me see the first instalment,' said Hazel. 'Is it paid in?'

'I don't know what you mean,' said Josephine. 'I tell you, they were all at me, and said I should be such a fool if I let it slip; and that I should be very happy;but I don't feel so.'

'Not when everybody says you are?' Hazel enquired with slight scorn.

'Of course one likes to have other people think one is happy,' said Josephine; 'you don't want to have them pitying you. I thought I should feel better when I was engaged and the whole thing settled. I wish people could live without getting married!'

'Well,' said Wych Hazel, 'there is one thing I could not do without,if I had to marry John Charteris.'

'What is that?'

'A pocket pistol.'

'A pocket pistol, Hazel! He isn't as bad as that. What's the matter with him?'

'Just a trifle. You do not love him.'

'They said that would come,' said Josephine dolefully.

'By express, from the land of nowhere,' said Miss Wych nibbling her nuts. 'Marked "Very perishable!!!" '

'But I don't find that it comes.'

'No,' said Hazel coolly, 'that land is a good way off. Isn't it cold work waiting all alone with the diamonds?'

Josephine displayed a magnificent finger. But she looked at it with no reflection of its light in her eyes. 'You speak very coolly,' she said, then letting her hand drop. 'I thought you would feel for me somehow.'

'I tell you I do, or I should not take the trouble of pinching you to see if you have any feeling left for yourself. Does not that ring make you shiver?'

'Sometimes. But what can I do, Hazel? It may as well be John Charteris as anybody else, as long as one can't please oneself. One must marry somebody. You know one must!'

'Look at them,' said Hazel. 'As cold and hard as he is. Flashing up nothing deeper than the pocket they came from.'

'There is no fault in the diamonds,' said Josephine sulkily. 'They ought to be hard. And these are beauties. And Charteris isn't harder than other people, that I know of. It is only thatI don't want to marry him. And he is in an awful hurry. If it was a long way off, I wouldn't mind so much.'

Wych Hazel dropped the chestnuts.

'Josephine,' she said gravely, 'do you see these rings on my hands?'

'Yes. I have seen them and admired them often enough. There's a splendid emerald though. I never saw that before. O Hazel!' the girl cried suddenly. 'It's on that finger!'

The hands were something to look at, in their glitter or strange old- fashioned rings, with many-coloured stones and various settings. Only a close observer would have noticed that the emerald alone was a fit.

'Every one of all the eight is a betrothal ring,' Hazel went on, not heeding; 'every one has been a token between people who chose each other from all the world. They were not all rich, you see, here is a poor little silver hoop among the diamonds. And they were not all happy; for this ruby has seen a death-parting, and the pearls are not whiter than the face that had waited for twenty years. But not one ring has the stain of a broken troth, nor the soil of a purchase. The people suffered, they waited, they died,but they never so much as thought of any one but each other, in all the world!' Wych Hazel folded her hands in her lap again, looking at Josephine with eyes that were all alight.

'But that's yours,' Josephine went in impatiently. 'Who put it on?' The girl's accent was of more than curiosity.

'There are several of them you have never seen before,' said Hazel. 'Josephine, do you understand what I say to you? People starve to death upon diamonds.'

'Ah well, but do tell me!' said the girl, with a curious mixture of coaxing and distressful in her tone. 'Do tell me who it was, Hazel. I just want to know.'

'You just want shaking, I think,' said Wych Hazel. 'I did not say anybody put it there. And I thought you wanted to talk of your own affairs? If not, I will go and attend to my guests."

'You are very cruel,' said Josephine, quite subdued. 'Just tell me if it wasStuart Nightingale?'

'No I shall not. You have nothing to do with Mr. Nightingale. You belong to Mr. Charteris.'

'You put me off!' cried Josephine, laying her face in her hands for a moment. 'It don't matter. I can find out some other way; there are ways enough.'

She looked towards the opening where gleams of colour could now and then be seen flitting among the trees. Wych Hazel laid one little hand on her shoulder.

'Josephine,' she said, 'I wish you would break this off!'

'What?'

'Any sort of engagement with John Charteris.'

'I can't,' said the girl drearily. 'They all want me to marry him. There's be an awful row if I broke it off now. And what difference does it make? If you can't have what you would like, all the rest is pretty much one thing. It's a bore; but one may as well get all out of it one can.'

'See!' said Hazel in her sweet persuasive tones,'you never know what you can have. And you can always have yourself. I would break itfeeling as you doif I were half way through the last yes.'

'Yes, it will do for you to talk,' said Josephine; 'but everybody is not rich like you. And even you, I suppose, don't choose to live as you are for ever. You'll marry too; your finger says so. And I must, I suppose. But I can't tell you how horrid it is. I tell you what, Hazel; one must like a man very much to be willing to give up one's liberty!'

Hazel was not fond of that way of stating the case, even yet. She wet back to the former words.

'Horrid?' she said,'there is no English strong enough. And "must" is absurd, so long as your liberty is in your own power. If ever I "don't choose," as you say, it will be because I don't choose.'

Poor Josephine rose up, straightened herself, with a bearing half proud half defiant, and looked away. Then in another minute, seeing her chance, she darted or glided from her covert, and before Hazel's indignant and pitying gaze, plunged into a gay bit of badinage with her lover who was passing near. No trace of regret or of unwillingness apparent; Josephine was playing off her usual airs with her usual reckless freedom; she and Charteris were presently out of sight.

'And she presumed to bring him here without my leave, and then came down upon me for pity! Wellthe supply is unlimited,she can have all she wants.'And Hazel looked down at her own ring, which meant so much; thinking of the diamonds which meant so little; and went off among her guests, to keep them in more respectful attitudes than even ever before. For Miss Kennedy was extremely remote this day, placing herself at such a dainty distance as was about equally fascinating and hard to bear. Somehow she evaded all the special little devotions with which she was beset; contriving that they should fall through so naturally, that the poor devotee blamed nothing but his own fingers, and followed the brown eyes about more helplessly than ever. Only one or two lookers-on saw deeper. Mr. Kingsland smiled, pursing his studies.

'This ethereal power which one cannot get hold of,' he remarked to himself, 'becomes truly terrific in such hands. Now there is young Bradford,he picked up out those chestnuts solely and exclusively for the heiress of Chickaree,and in some inexplicable way she has made him hand over to Molly Seaton. Not a cent but what her brothers may give her. And how Tom Porter comes to be walking off with Miss May, nobody will ever know but the sorceress herself. She will none of him,nor of anybody else. Who has won?'

'You are expecting more guests, I see, even at this late hour,' he remarked aloud to Mr. Falkirk.

'Why do you judge so?'

'I notice a certain absence,' said Mr. Kirkland. 'Also a vacant place which no one here is allowed to fill. "Trifles light as air," perhaps,and yet'

'Where is your associate counsel to-day, Mr. Falkirk?' said Kitty Fisher, interposing her pretty figure. 'Do you and he take it "off and on"?'

Now this young lady being Mr. Falkirk's special aversion, he deigned no reply to her impertinence; confronting her instead with an undeclarative face and manner of calm repression.

'What is on the carpet?' said a new comer.

'Now whatever possessed you to come on it?' said Miss Fisher with a pout. 'We were just going to scare up a German!'

'Perhaps I can be of some slight assistance.'

Kitty Fisher clapped him affectionately on the shoulder.

'Thanksmy dear fellow,' she said. 'We all know what your "slight assistance" amounts to in such cases. Too mean of you to come! And Hazel has not had one bit of fun yet this whole day.'

'What have you been doing to her?'

'It's a wicked shame,' Kitty went on. 'And Sir Henry coming and everybody. I was going to take out Mr. Falkirkit's leap year, you know; and he might be short of partners,' said Miss Fisher, prudently dropping her voice at this point.

'What is a shame, if you please?'

'For you to walk in and play marplot.'

'Let me walk you off instead, and be useful. You can explain to me your plans as we go.'

'I can help you to find the brown eyes, poor things!' said Kitty. 'Well, they do lots of mischief when you're not by,that's one comfort.'

Through the bright woodland, from group to group of chestnutters, the gentleman and the young lady went. The scene was pretty and lively, but Wych Hazel was not with any of the groups; having in fact escaped from her admirers into the deeper shadow of trees that did not bear chestnuts. At last Miss Fisher's curiosity waked up. Bidding her companion keep watch where he was, in a shadowy corner of red oaks and purple ashes, she ran off, "to beat the bush," as she said; and hardly were her footsteps out of hearing, before lighter ones came through the wood, and Hazel's white dress gleamed out among the colours. She was walking slowly, quite alone, the brilliant fingers twisted together in some knot of a puzzle; but even as Rollo looked from his corner still other steps were heard, and another lady and another gentleman came on the scene.

'O here she is!' cried Miss Burr. 'Et toute seuleby all that's lucky. Here fair lady, I've brought you an escort. I knew Sir Henry Crofton might come without being invited.' And Miss Burr, conscious that she had done a bright thing, walked off to find an escort for herself. Then ensued a peculiar little scene.

The gentleman advanced eagerly, holding out his hand. And Wych Hazel, taking not the least seeming notice, stopped short in her walk, and leaning back against one of the red oaks began to fit on her gloves with the utmost deliberation.

'Sir Henry Crofton knew,' she remarked, 'that it was the only possible way in which he could come.'

'You have not forgiven me!' said the young man with much mortification.

'No,' said Wych Hazel. 'I think I have not.'

Sir Henry was silent, watching the hands and the sparkling fingers, and the gloves that went on so ruthlessly. Then burst forth with words, low spoken and impetuous, which Rollo did not hear. Hazel interrupted him.

'I said I had not forgiven you,' she said. 'I will forget youif you will give me chance. That may answer as well.'

'Forget!' the young man said bitterly,'I shall never forget you!' but he turned off abruptly and left her; and Hazel came slowly forward, with a troubled face.

'Are you "due" anywhere?' said Rollo, suddenly standing, or walking, at her side.

'You!yes, I am due everywhere, at this precise moment.'

'Exceptto me, that means.'

'Your notes are not payable till afternoon. And if I do not go and end the morning comfortably with luncheon, afternoon will never come. See what it is to have a logical head.'

Hazel paused and took her former position against a tree stem, leaning back as if she was tired.

'I should like to leave the whole thing on your hands,' she said, 'and then I could lose myself comfortably in the woods, and when everybody was gone you could come and find me. No, that would not do, either' She roused herself and walked on. 'There is nothing for it to-day but to go straight through. I think people are all bewitched and beside themselves!'

He laughed at her a little, and let her go with a consoling assurance that they "would soon end all that." And as the day was wearing on, and the pleasure of such pleasure-seekers as then filled Wych Hazel's woods was especially variety, they were very ready to quit the chestnuts and saunter up to the house; in hope of the luncheon which there awaited them. Mrs. Bywank knew her business; and the guests knew, not that, but the fact that somebody knew it and that the luncheons at Chickaree were pleasant times and very desirable. So there was soon a universal drawing towards the hill top, from all the forsaken chestnut trees, which were left by no means despoiled of their harvest. They had served their turn; now came the turn of patties and cold meats and jellies and ices and fruits. The gathering was rather large; larger than it had shewn for in the woods. The Chickaree house was full and running over; and chestnutters were found to have fearful appetites; and flirtations took new life and vivacity in the new atmosphere; and the whole of it was, people would not go away. Not only Wych Hazel but both her guardians had sharp work for hour after hour attending to the wants and the pleasure of the guests; who at last, when the day was waning, and not till then, slowly made up their minds to take their departure, and one by one took leave of their hostess with thanks and flatteries expressive of highest gratification and admiring delight. Party after party Dane saw to their carriages and bowed off; the house was emptied at last; Mr. Falkirk had betaken himself to the seclusion of his cottage already some time before; and when the afternoon was really darkening, enough to make the glow of the fires within tell in ruddy cheer upon walls and curtains, Dane left the hall door and the latest departure and went into the house to find Wych Hazel and get his "notes" paid.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WORTH OF A FEATHER.

The door of the red room stood open now, and the room was filled with firelight which came streaming out into the hall to usher him in. Hazel was down before the fire, sending persuasive puffs from her bellows into the very depths of the coals.

'What is left of you?' said Dane coming and taking the bellows from her hand.

'Much more than you are aware of. Have some chestnuts?just for variety,'and Hazel took from her pocket and poured into his hand her collection of extra specimens. Then quietly slipping from her fingers all the disguising rings she dropped them one by one into the empty pocket, until the emerald was left alone.

'Good fruit'said Dane viewing the big chestnuts.

'I have been saving them up for you all day. You know I could not always help taking them.'

'Do you mean that people have been paying tribute to you in your own chestnuts?'

'Having nothing of their own that I would touch.'

'In the meanwhile, what besides have you touched? I want to know.'

'Never mindwe will have tea by and by. Dr. Maryland said you were to wait here for himor for a message. Whichever came first, I suppose.'

'I am not going to wait here for him,'said Dane, ringing the bell. 'Will this bring Dingee?'

'No,' said Hazel laughing; 'that will bring Phoebe. Dingee acknowledges nothing but my whistle.'

'Where is that?'

'Here'touching the little gold toy at her belt. 'But you do not know how to blow it, Mr. Rollo.'

Dane lifted the trinket and examined it, and then remarking that 'a whistle is a whistle,' put his lips to it and made the call sound loud and clear through the house.

'What do you want?' said Hazel laughing at him. 'Dingee will know better than to think me responsible for that. Tell me what you want, and I will obey ordersas usual.'

'Dingee will know better than to think anybody else has blown your whistle. Dingee!'as the boy appeared,'go and say to Mrs. Bywank, with my compliments, that your mistress has had nothing to eat all day, except chestnuts. I think she will know what to do.'

Dingee took in the situation and went off with a flourish.

'Did you see John Charteris here to-day?' Hazel said suddenly.

'I think he crossed my line of vision,' said Dane carelessly.

'Well I did not ask him.'

'What then?' said Rollo looking amused at her.

'I did not want you should think that I would.' And Hazel, full of her own successful schemes in the mill business, smiled down upon the fire a whole sweet fund of triumph and delight, to which not only lips but eyes bore witness. Still looking amused, but with a great tenderness coming upon that, Rollo considered her.

'It is beyond the power of John Charteris to give me any uneasiness,' he said. 'And you are forgetting my emerald, Hazel.'

'I? What? Forgetting?'

'Forgetting what it means. Hazelwhat is your ideal of a wedding?'

Rollo was drawing one of Hazel's brown curls through his fingers and spoke in the coolest manner of abstract speculation. But the question came too close upon emeralds not to call up a vivid start of colour. As soon as she could, Hazel answered that 'as she had none, it was impossible to tell.'

'Let me state mine,' said Rollo. 'It may be useful to find out whether we think alike. In the first place, then, as to the scene of action.The main thing is, to be where a large number of people can see us, and where we shall make part of an imposing picture. I can think of nothing better, in this country, than the Capitol of Washington. That would be showy, and central. I have no doubt it could be obtained for the occasion. I cannot think of any place more public or more demonstrative; can you?'

'Well?' said Hazel, stifling a laugh, for Dane's face was perfectly grave.

'We should of course in that case invite the Senate and House of Representatives, and give a cold collation to the city of Washington. With your money and mine, we could not well do less.'

' "We" is rather superfluous.'

'How so?' very innocently.

'Never mind now; go on.'

'You approve, so far?' enquired Rollo, with dangerous demureness in the wise gray eyes.

'O I have nothing to do with the matter,' said Hazel. 'It is your imagination that has slipped its bridle, and I am simply curious to see where it will bring up.'

'I don't know myself,' said Rollo. 'I am trying to fancy what the presents will be. Of course, since we ask the Senate and House of Representatives to the wedding, every man of them will send you a piece of plate; probably the majority of them will be teakettles. As I do not drink tea, it hardly concerns me much; but they will be very convenient for you. The arrangement of them for inspection is a matter of some difficulty;I would suggest a pyramidal scaffolding on which they might be all disposed with very striking effect; indeed if it were done cleverly I conceive it might be possible to give the impression of a solid pyramid of teakettles; which would be imposing. The Hall of Representatives would be a good place, I should think; allowing of an effective display of the bronze statuettes which will probably accompany the teakettles. Every giver's name, of course, is to be appended to his own piece of plate; so that it can be seen at a glance who has given most; and then with the income tax reports in your hand, you can see who ought to have given most. I think all New York would be there. Be a good thing for the railway companies!'

Wych Hazel laughed a little bit, but she was too shy of the subject and too conscious of hot cheeks, to enter upon it very freely.

'There is one thing you have forgotten,' she said. 'Your "ideal" is not complete, Mr. Rollo.'

'What do you suggest?'

'An ideal woman. I am waiting for that.'

'Did you think I was going to have a wedding without a bride?'

'Wellcan you match the colours? You have put in the teakettles rather strong.'

'I hope they'll be strong,' said Dane, 'if they are anything. If there is anything I don't like, it is weak ware.'

Hazel was silent, looking rather intently into the fire.

'I think I have mentioned everything except the bride's dress and the wedding journey. And the first subject I feel myself incompetent to approach. In general, the main thing is that it should gratify curiosity and be somehow in advance of anything of the kind ever worn before. Is not that the great point?'

'Did you ever set Prim to talk to me about my dress?' said Hazel, facing round upon him with a wide change of subject in her own mind. Dane, with his own still before him, laughed and said no; and then asked with some curiosity why she enquired?'

'I was afraid you had,that is all.'

'That is a little too much. I never set other people to do my work.'

He could see a gleam of pleasure cross her face, but she only said quietly, 'I am glad.'

'What did Prim say to you?'

'O it was some time agothe night we were in Norway together. Prim asked me what I was going to "do" about dress. And to this day I do not know what she meant.'

'Your wedding dress?'

'Ah be quiet!' said Hazel. 'I am talking sense. Is your imagination too exhausted to bring you back to the land of reality?'

'I am speaking the most commonplace sense I possess. If Prim was not referring to your wedding dress, what did she mean?'

'That is just what I do not quite know. Prim asked that all of a sudden, and I said, I did not know what she meant by "do;" and she said "manage;" and I said I never managed. And then she saidat least asked'

'What?' said Dane, a trifle imperatively.

'Whether I thought you would like to have me dress as I do,'said Hazel in a low voice.

The gray eyes took quick account of several items in the little lady's attire, then turned away; and Dane remarked that 'Prim had meant no harm.'

'No, not a bit. But it puzzled me,and I looked down at my dress, justas you did now. And Prim said, of course she did not mean what I wore then, but that I always dressed so beautifully. And then I thought,' said Hazel with the laugh in her voice, 'that maybe she thought it was wrong to have one's dress hang right. And next morning I was naughty enough to pull out her loopings and do them over. Then I asked her if she felt demoralized, or something. And Prim wanted to know if I thought she meant that? and bade me look at your dress. Which I have, very often,' Hazel added with a shy glance, 'but I do not find that it gives me any help about my own.'

Dane rewarded this speech with a look of grave deliberation, which ended with the corners of his mouth breaking into all manner of lines of fun. Hazel smiled too, partly at him, partly at herself.

'You see what always happens when I talk out,' she said. 'I am sure to be laughed at for my "confidence," as you call it. But Mr. Rollo, I did not much mind what Prim said. Not a bit, only for two little things.'

'What little things, Hazel?' and there was the force of a dozen "dears" and "my loves" in the quiet intonation.

'I thought for a while that you had told her to talk to me. As you did once before.'

A quick look denied all knowledge of such an occasion.

'At Greenbushthat night,' said Hazel.

'That night,' said Dane smiling again. 'But I did not set her to talk to you then. I only sent her to do what I supposed at the moment she might do more acceptably.'

'I know'said Hazel, 'but I never could take second-hand orders. That was one of the times when you made a mistake in your dealings with me.'

'Well? You know I shall not make such mistakes any more. And yet, Hazel,' said he growing grave, 'that is too much for me to say even lightly. Perhaps I shall make mistakes. Till we have lived long enough together to know each other thoroughly, I might. What will you do then?'

She laughed a little, half raised her eyes, and let them fall. 'No,' she said, 'you will not repeat those two or three great ones; and others do not matter.'

'Two or three!' said Dane; but then he began again.'What was the other "little thing" that annoyed you in Prim's words the other night?'

'About as wise as the first! I never supposed you noticed my dress,or would,while I kept out of yellow feathers and sky blue gloves. But Prim left a sort of impression, that if ever you should, it would be to dislike it. And that troubled me a little bit at the time, and has troubled mejust a little bitever since.'

Probably Dane's first thoughts were not put into words. What he did, was to get hold of Wych Hazel's hand, and between the kisses he gave it he remarked,

'I never noticed your dress without feeling a certain delight in its perfect harmonies; andI never saw you without noticing your dress.'

'You?' Hazel said with a quick, timid intonation. And then there came a great flush of pleasure, and she looked away and was silent; thinking to herselfwhat she herself would have called "all sorts of things."

'Don't you think,' said Dane coolly, 'that as we have evidently so much respectively to learn about each other, we had better begin as soon as possible?'

'Are you expecting such new developments?But then,' she said, the doubtful look waking up again, 'what did Primrose mean? She meant something,and you know what it was.'

'Do I? I suppose Primrose felt that I had changed from my once views of that, as of other subjects.'

'What were your "once" views?' said Hazel. 'I hardly knew that people had what you call "views" about dress.'

Rollo smiled.

'I suppose mine were what yours are now.'

'Then yours never had existence.'

'And your dress happens. Do you mean that?'

'No, no!but if I had worn two or three necklaces to the woods this morning, it would have been want of sense and taste, not of views.'

'Certainly. Your "views" of dress are sense and taste. Or rather, your instinct, I should say.'

'But,' said Hazel,'no, that is not what I mean. Sense and taste have to do directly with the subject,they grow out of it, or are mixed up with it,I wish anybody had ever taught me to talk, among other things!I mean, they are intrinsic. And "views" always seemed to take an outside stand, irrespective of everything. I think I do not like "views." '

'You cannot help having them,' said Dane laughing at her. ' "Views" are merely the simplest word for how you see a thing; under what light, and proportions, and relations.'

Hazel shook her head.

'I never was famous for seeing things,' she said. 'I think I go more by instinct. What do you compliment me by supposing my views of dress to be, Mr. Rollo?'

'That is something from which you are to get, and give, the sense of beauty, in infinite variety.'

"Well, leaving that statement for the present, what are yours, please?'

'That it is a usable thing, which I am to use, like everything else, for my Master.'

Hazel glanced at him, and looked away.

'Up to a certain point,' she said, 'our views go side by side; we both call it a power.'

Dane was silent, with a certain sweet, grave silence, that evidently was not in want of thoughts. Hazel sat still too for a few minutes, knotting her little fingers together. She glanced at him again before she went on.

'But further than that, I do not understand. I think, generally, I have dressed to please myself,not often for a purpose; though I could do that, I suppose, upon occasion. That is, in my sort of way. But in yours, Mr. Rollo,I should get in such a labyrinth of black merino and green silk and blue velvet and white muslin, no line that ever was twisted would be long enough to guide me out.'

'There's a short way out,' said Rollo. 'I will not let you get into a labyrinth.'

'That may alter the case,' said Hazel with a half laugh. 'But just Prim's words, and the thought of your criticising my dress, put me in such confusion to-day that I was very near not getting dressed at all; and was ever so much ashamed of myself.' The fluttering white dress, by the way, had given place to one of the soft leaf-brown silks in which she delighted. Perhaps Rollo's eyes liked it too; for they took a complacent view and came back to her face with a smile.

'It is a problem, to be worked out,' he said.

'In my way, to your ends?' queried Hazel. 'The difference lying in the use or disposal of the power when in hand. Is that what you mean?'

'That will do. But sometimes it happens, that beauty of effect must give way before more important uses.'

'Why? And how?' she said looking at him.

'Do you want me to go into it?'

'Yes, of course. And get me out.'

'I don't know about that. Well,I have seen you,to come to personalities,I have seen you, for instance, wearing a hat and feather. I have good reason to remember it; for the play of that feather used to gratify and irritate me, both at once, beyond what was on the whole easy to bear. The hat suited the feather, and the feather became the hat; and hat and feather were precisely suited to you. Your purpose, or "views," in dressing, were perfectly attained. Suppose I could shew you that the pretty brown plume represented what would keep a certain poor family from suffering through the winter months?'

If Hazel was ready to laugh at one point of this speech, she grew grave enough over the remainder; the sensitive colour stirring and deepening in her cheeks. Anything that ever came near direct personal criticism was so new to her.

'But Mr. Rollo' she began.

'Yes,' he said gently and taking her hand, 'I am waiting for that. Say just what is in your mind.'

'The poor family did not come forward, or they could have had what they wanted. I did not know where they were. You do not think I invest everything in feathers,feelings and all?'

'Hazel, I am putting a case. It is a constant case, certainly; but brought forward just now to illustrate a principlenothing else. Suppose the poor family did come forward and get its supply; then I could tell you of a case of sickness, and shew you that your feather represented the professional attendance and skill which poverty could not command.'

'But, but,' said Hazel earnestly,'I mean. Suppose,I have enough for them and myself too?'

'Then I could tell you of a poor invalid, to whom a few weeks in the country would be life and health; but she cannot stop work. Or I could tell you of a family just turned out of house and home because illness has made them behindhand with the rent. I could shew you friendless children, to one of whom your feather would give safety and food for a year. Or feeble and ailing people, to whom it would supply the delicacies they cannot get nor do without. Or poor ministers, to whom it could go in an invaluable parcel of books. Or ignorant poor, seeking instruction, to whom it would be months of schooling. And then, I should but have given you samples, Hazel, which you might multiply by the hundred and the thousand, and still keep far within the literal fact.'

She listened with a grave face, trying to follow; but it is hard for eighteen to realize at all what even fourscore takes in but dimly.

'You think I am extravagant,' she said.

'That would be a very harsh word in this connection. I do not mean it. I was trying to answer you. You said, "Suppose I have enough for them and myself too." '

'I wonder if I am?' she said with a half laugh and yet soberly.'I wish I could stand off and look at myself. Mr. Rollo, will you give me another instance? I shall have to forgive that feather, because it had the honour of "irritating" you, and so enlists my sympathies; but what else have you seen me wear, that could do so much more than itself?'

'The red squirrel has no business to preach to the shrew mouse,' said he lightly, but looking at her as if doubtful how far it were best to go.

'I am not a shrew,' said Hazel with somewhat prompt decision. 'Nor a mouse. Nor spun glass. So all those little preliminaries are disposed of. And I do not see why you should preach to everybody else and not to me.'

Dane however had scruples. He looked at Wych Hazel, and though his gray eyes were all afire with purpose and spirit, he pursed up his lips with a low whistle and getting up from his chair took a turn or two through the large room. Finally came and stood before Wych Hazel.

'What is the cost of that dress you have on,' said he. 'I mean, by the yard?'

'This? I have no idea. I order what I like, and pay the bills when they come. What was the use of information with which I could do nothing?' But the colour started again.

'We shall have to get the bills, then, before we can go on. If you have kept them, that is.'

'Do you mean,' she said, looking up at him rather wistfully now,' that I am always what you call extravagant?'

'Never, that I know of,' said he smiling down at her. 'To be extravagant, is to go beyond bounds; and one who has never been conscious of the bounds, cannot be justly said to have done that.'

'One ought to be conscious of proper bounds,' said Hazel, as if she were a good deal disappointed in herself.

'You are only just beginning to be conscious of anything,' said Dane audaciously.

'StatementsI cannot think how you find time to get them all up. Well, Mr. Rollo? what next?'

'I should like to know how soon you are going to let me come home,' said he sitting down by her.

In an instant Hazel was absolutely still, even to the ends of the small fingers that lay folded in her lap, peeping out from the broad lace shadows. And, nicely timed for her, the tea bugle just then rang out, and the door of the red room opened to admit Dingee and the tea tray; with cold partridge, and salad, and delicate loaves of bread, white and brown, and wonderful cake, and a shape of Mrs. Bywank's own special quince jelly. Hazel sprang up to superintend and give directions; but when the little table was spread and wheeled up, she dismissed Dingee and went to making the tea herself.

'I often have tea here when I am alone,' she said,'I mean, when Mr. Falkirk does not come. And I thought perhaps you would like it too.'

'Very much,' returned Dane demurely. 'So much that I am impatient for it to become a stated fact. How long do you mean to keep me at Gyda's?'

'You have such a peculiar way of putting questions,' said Hazel, emulating the composure in everything but her face. 'Never wording them so they can be answered. And there is no use in disturbing them ages beforehand. Shall I give you coffee, Mr. Rollo?'

'You are under a mistake. I am not going to be an age at Gyda's.'

'Wellthen Gyda will be disappointed.'

'And you?'

'You know you always have sufficient force of character to disappoint me easily.'

'Have I? Would it disappoint you very much if I proposed to be married at Christmas?'

'In that case,' answered Miss Wych, 'the force of character would be on my side, and the disappointment on yours.'

'May I ask your views?' said Dane, with a coolness that was provoking.

'Ah, be quiet!' said Hazel in desperation,'you are perplexing all my ideas. Is it five lumps of sugaror sixthat go in when you have control of the sugar bowl?'

'The question is, just now, how many go in when you have the control?' But then he let the supper take its course for a while in commonplace peace.

'I wonder,' Wych Hazel began suddenly, her thoughts flying back to the talk before tea,'I was thinkingI have thought very often,how many things you will find in me that you do not like? And how little there is you would like to find!'

A flash of the eyes came to her across the table; and then Dane remarked quietly that he had thought of that a number of times. 'Indeed I may say,' he added, 'that I am always thinking of it.'

She laughed a little bit, catching his meaning, but the serious look came back.

'For instance,' she said,'all this that I spend on myself, you wouldand dospend on other people.'

'I think nothing can equal my astonishment at that "statement," except the impossibility of answering it!'

'But I do not mean anything ridiculous,' said Hazel,'not bread and butter and partridges. At least, I don't know about the partridgesbut you understand. And I do not mean that I would not give them up,only'

'Did I convey the impression that I wished you to give up partridges?'

'Yesif somebody else wanted them more,' said Hazel. 'And I am willing enough. But then, but then!I wish you knew,' she said, rising abruptly as Dingee came in to clear the table. 'I wish I could tell you.'

CHAPTER XV.

CONFIDENTIAL TALK.

Dane waited, till Dingee's services had been performed and the door was closed behind him again; then came beside Wych Hazel where she was standing and drew her within his arm.

'What do you wish you could tell me, Hazel?' he said, with the tenderness of eye and voice which, with him, came instead of expletives of endearment. There was a faint quiver of the lips that answered,

'Thingsabout me, that you ought to know. And it is very hard to tell you some things, Mr. Rollo.'

'It would be easier, if you could call me something else,' he said, bending to kiss her. 'I should like to know anything about you. What are these "things"?'

'My thoughts and life. And I cannot tell them without saying so muchthat I would not say, and, maybe, ought not.Only, when you begin to start questionsand subjects,then,' Hazel paused to gather her forces. 'Then I think it is right you should know everything about me, first.' The last word came out very low, and even the instinct of truth could hardly have carried her further just then.

'Go on, and tell me,' said Dane gently. 'The words are as sweet to me as a chime of bells; but, just yet, not so intelligible.'

She stood very still for a minute, her head bent down. Then softly disengaged herself.

'I cannot talk to you so,' she said. 'Sit down, please, in the bergre, and let me sit here; and I will tellwhat I can.'

"Here" meant a low foot cushion near the bergre, where the young lady placed herself, but a little drawn back and turned away, where only the firelight could look in her face.

'Stop!'said Dane, arresting this part of the arrangements. 'You at my feet!'

'Yes, if I like it,' said Hazel. 'When you have to gainsay people in great things, you should always let them have their way in small.'

She got up and crossed over to the fire, replacing a brand that had fallen down; came back to her cushion and sat there a minute with her hands folded.

'A year ago,' she said, 'when you drove home with me from Moscheloo,you had no new views, Mr. Rollo. None in practice. In a sense, you and I were on the same ground.'

'Well?'said he, a little anxiously.

'Then in the winter,I partly guessed first from Dr. Maryland's words what you told me,in effect, yourself. And at first I liked it,I thought I was glad.'

'At first'echoed Rollo.

'At first,' Hazel repeated. 'It suited me, to have you take the highest stand you could, and Mrs. Coles stirred up enough antagonism to keep me from knowing that I was anything but glad.'

'Why should you be anything but glad?' said Dane, in tones which did not reveal the surprise which was growing upon him.

'I did not know that I wasuntil you came. Mr. Falkirk kept up the antagonism, and I had not much time to think. But when you came' She hesitated a little, then went steadily on. It was so like Hazel, to do what she had to do, if it took her through fire and water!'I had left you standing in one place,' she said, 'and you had moved quite away to another. And I knewthat standing thereyou would never have seen me.'

'That is a conclusion you have no right to,' said Dane calmly.

'No matterit is true. You eyes would have been set for other things, and your appreciation would have been all changed and different. I knew it then, that night. You talked of things I but half understood, and your face was all shining with a light that did not fall on me. And partly it mortified me,I was used to having at least some vantage ground; and partly it brought back the old loneliness, which hadperhapsjust a little bit gone away. Then you left me a lesson.'

Dane sat where she had desired him, but leaning down towards her, listening and looking very gravely and intently. 'Yes,' he answered; 'and you studied it.'

'I tried.'The words came rather faintly. 'And that was there the tangle began.'

'What made the tangle?'

'Becausebecause the lesson and you were all wrapped up together. And I could never study it withoutstudying you. And soso it came,'she drew her breath a little, holding her fingers tight,'that before I could know much about thatI had to decide something elsedefinitelyfirst.'

Certainly some things are hard to tell!

'Well, you did decide something else definitely,' said Dane, with most delightful matter-of-fact gravity of manner, not seeming to recognize her difficulty at all.

'Then the tangle grew worse,' said Hazel. 'I used to think I was trying to be interested, or trying to understand, or trying to do, just to please you,or because you would like me better. And besides'

'Wellit would not have been very wicked if that had been partly true.'

'No,' said Hazel,'but then the work would not have been real; and I never could tell. And besides,' she went on again, 'you did not come, and I did not hear,and it did not suit me to be always thinking about youand I tried to put the whole thing out of my head.'

'Did I make a mistake then?' said Rollo. 'But I found I could not bear very well to meet you on the neutral ground of that year. I was waiting.'