'Yes. I was not speaking of that,' she said. 'When you take such a tangle into society, it ties itself into twenty new knots. That is all that need be said of the summer and spring. Then I came home.'

'And then I made a mistake,' said Rollo. 'You need not tell me that.'

She sighed a little, answering to another point.

'You could not know that you had started all the old questions again, and that I thought it was maybe your changed point of viewthat made it so easy for you to give me up.'

'But why do you recal all this now, Hazel?' asked Dane, very quietly. 'I never gave you up; it was a fancied somebody that was not you.'

'It came in the course of my story. I could not pass it. Only for that,' she said, turning her face towards him for a moment. 'Because then, in some of those days, I thoughtperhapsI had learned the lesson you set me.'

'And you do not think so now?'

'I am not sure that it was true work,' she answered slowly. 'For in a storm one flies to shelter,and just then my hands sought anything that could stand and would not change. But now'

Dane was proverbially scarce a patient man after a certain line was passed. He left his chair now, stooped and took Hazel's hands and gently pulled her up from her low cushion; and then took her in his arms and held her close.

'I understand all about it,' he said. 'You need not try to tell me any more. My little Wych! Look here; there are just two things to be said, one mediate, the other immediate. In the first place, no uncertainty of motives need embarrass or delay your action in a course that you know to be right. In the next place,Hazel,don't you see, that when we have been married a while and I am become an old story, I shall be more of a help and less of a hindrance? And I know all about you; and I don't know it a bit better after all this long exposition than I did before. And if I have changed my standpoint relatively to some things, I have never changed it respecting you, except to draw nearer. Now confess you have been a foolish child.'

The soft laugh which answered him had more than shyness to make it unsteady.

'I do not suppose you want to change me for anybody else,' she said. 'But I do not want you to think I am anybody else.'

There came just then rapid hoof-beats round the house, and in a minute more Dingee presented himself in the red room, bearing a request that Mr. Rollo would come to the side door for a moment, to see Dr. Arthur Maryland.

CHAPTER XVI.

DR. ARTHUR'S NEWS.

The doctor was on horseback, but standing a little way off from the steps.

'Stay where you are' he said, speaking low however. 'Dane, there is ship fever among those Swedes that have just come to the Hollow.'

'The Schiffers?'

'Yes. I was not certain till to-night, but I have been all day taking precautions and making arrangements, and could not get away a minute sooner. I was afraid you might miss a message; and I would not write notes there to be opened here. Now I cannot stop to talk, but if you will send me general orders every morning for men and business in the Hollow, I will see them carried out. Good- night.My respects to her Grace.'

'StopArthur!' said the other as he was moving off'I shall be there presently.'

'On no account!' said Dr. Arthur wheeling round. 'I am too glad that you were here to-day. Always depute that part of your work which somebody else can do.'

'I will be there, Arthur, in an hour or two. Go onyou had better not wait for me.'

Dr. Arthur sat still a minute, looking down between his horse's ears.

'Well,' he said,'perhaps it is none of my business, but do you know what a sensitive plant you have to deal with in there? She must not have another shock like that mysterious one of a month ago. Good-night!'

With a somewhat slow step, Rollo left the hall door and went back to the red room. But his face shewed no change to disturb Wych Hazel. He came back first to the fire, and somewhat thoughtfully, quite silently, put it in order. By that time he was ready. He faced Wych Hazel, and spoke in his ordinary tone.

'I am glad we have had this day, Wychand I am glad we have had our talk this evening: for I find we cannot have another in some time.'

'You are going away?' she said, rising and coming towards him. 'One of your business trips? Then this will be my time for a few days in town, to "do about dress" a little. Do you suppose honestlythat anybody wants my new gloves?' The question came with a laugh and a flash which yet did not hide it. But silently Dane folded his two arms about her and pressed kiss after kiss upon brow and lips. That shewed feeling more than he meant to shew it. Yet when he spoke his tone was clear and sweet, no shadow at all in it.

'I am not going away.'

She drew off as far as she could, to look at him, with sudden instinctive fear. Only her eyes put questions now.

'Yes,' he said,'there is sickness in the Hollow. And it is contagious sickness.'

'O, is there?'with a grave look which yet told more of relief that concern. 'And you are going to help Dr. Arthur take care of them!'

He answered absently, looking at her, as a man might who expected to lose such an indulgence for some time to come. Her face was very thoughtful for a minute; then she looked up with almost a smile.

'Yes,' she repeated,'of course you must. Well, I am ready.'

'Are you?' said he. 'For what?'

'You think I do not know enough,' said Hazel with some eagerness; 'and I do not know much; but I can follow directions. And Byo declares she was never so taken care of in her life as once by me.'

Instead of answering, at first, Dane clasped her closer in his arms and kissed her, as if in anticipation of the hunger for the sight of her which would shortly set in.

'I should like to have you take care of me,' he said at length. 'If I needed a little care, that is.'

'Well,' said Wych Hazel, 'you may put it so, if you like. You will need a great deal before you have been in that Hollow two days.'

'Need it. Do you think you can give it?' said he wistfully.

'Without a doubt.'

'But you are not my wife, Wychyou cannot be there with me now. And if you were my wife, you could not. Do you think I would let you?'

She shrank back a little, hanging her head. This view of the case had certainly not come up.

'I thoughtI supposeanybody may come and go to see sick people,' she said under her breath. 'I thought, anybody might stay with them. And I think so now. I never heard of etiquette over small-pox.'

'You could not "come and go" to these people. I shall establish a strict quarantine, and probably be in it myself. You must not come even near the Hollow.'

'But I need not have anything to do with you,' pleaded Hazel. 'I am going to serve under Dr. Arthur.'

'That is just my place.'

'You may keep it,' said Hazel. 'A woman's place is not solid and stationary like a man's. Nobody will know where I am, but some poor sick child that everyone else is too busy for.'

Perhaps Dane smothered a sigh; but he only said, clear and clean- cut the words were now,

'I cannot have you there, Hazel. You must keep your place and do your work here. The Hollow is my business.'

'And you mean to leave me outside of your business?' she questioned, with eyes incredulous even yet.

'Outside of this business. And you are not to come even near the Hollow. I know you do not like to give promises, and so I do not ask for one. This is not a request. You understand?'

'Olaf!'It was the sweetest of pleading tones. But no more words followed,neither word nor look.

'Ah you have adopted me at last, have you!' said he. 'I have been waiting for this. And the sweetness of it will be in my ears all these days before me. The next time you speak that word in such music, Hazel, I will give you what you ask.'

'Not now?' she said softly. 'I may not go even to Gyda's?'

'Gyda will be with me.'

The words, the utterance, were cheery, clear and sweet; at the same time strong and absolute. And Rollo wore a look which I think a woman does not dislike to see on a face she loves, even though its decisions be against her; there was sweetness enough in it, also unmanageableness! No shadow, it must be noted. If he was going into danger, and knew it, the fact did not shadow him.

Hazel stood still, struggling with herself; fighting the disappointment and the restraint; most of all, the sorrow which came in the train of the other two. For with the passing away of her own thought of going, the thought that he must go came out clear and strong. Into that infected place, to be shut up in quarantine with no one knew what! Hazel passed her hands across her forehead as if she were pushing the shadows right and left, bidding them wait.

'I wanted to ask,' she said,and then the voice changed, and suddenly the soft touch of her fingers came to his face, stroking back some lock of hair to its accustomed place. But the look was as intent and unconscious as if she never expected to see him again in all her life. And he stood still, like a man under a spell, which he would not break by the least movement.

'Those people,' she began again hurriedly, bringing herself back to business and a business tone, 'will want a great deal. And there is not much in the Hollow, nor on the hill. If you will let me, I can have supplies sent from here every day. Mrs. Bywank will know what. And my messenger need not go near that part of the Hollow; the things can be left at any point you say.' She looked up eagerlythen down again; not much fonder than he was of asking what she could not have.

'Do that, by all means,' was the answer. 'Your supplies may be left at the mill where I read.'

The shadow on her face deepened.

'Will you write?'

'No.' His face began to take on something of the yearning look of the Huguenot in the picture.

'How then shall I hear?'

'I have been thinking about that. I do not know; unless Arthur can carry reports now and then to Dr. Maryland, and Prim or her father bring them to you.'

'He may come straight here at once,' said Hazel. 'I can talk out of a window as well as anybody else. And if anybody ventures to come here to comfort me, I shall'

'What?' said Rollo smiling.

'Send me no reports that way. I could not bear it. And Dr. Arthur will stay in the Hollow while you stay.'

There was a moment's gesture that reminded him of the despairing way in which she had flung herself down in the chair, that long ago night at Green Bush.

'Dr. Arthur will go and come as a physician should, according to the demand for him. What will you do, my little Wych?'

'I do not know. Only one thing.'

'What is that one thing?'

Again Hazel was silent, struggling with herself, controlling her lips to speak.

'Just one thing'the words came passionately now. 'If you are sick, I shall come. And it is no use to lay commands on me, because I should break them all in one minute. I know I should. Promises or commands or anything else.'

He paused slightly before he spoke.

'Do you know, Mrs. Bywank once said in my hearing that you were the lovingest little thing that ever lived. I knew she was right. I have been waiting for this minute. It makes me a rich man. But you will not come to the Hollow, Hazel, even though I were ill. You must love me enough to mind my wishes. It is hard, I know. It is the very last and uttermost proof of love.'

Hazel was bending down, busy detaching something from her chatelaine. The fingers were quick and hurried, but the words came slow.

'Hush,' she said. 'You must not say that. You are confusing things. And your rights do not cover all the ground. There is a corner, somewhere, where mine grow. Now'she raised her head, drawing a long breath,how fast the gathering tide of anxiety and sorrow came rolling in!'See here. I know you have nothing so womanish as a vinaigrette about you,but womanish things are useful just now and then. Will you fasten this to your watch chainto please me?'The eyes were wistful in their beseeching. She was so uncertain of having anything granted to-night!

He met them with a grave, searching attention, and releasing her from the arms which had till then enfolded her, gravely fastened the vinaigrette as she wished. He turned slightly then and rested his elbow on the mantel-piece, looking down into the fire which his care had caused to leap into brilliant life. As motionless on her part Hazel stood, with fingers interlaced and still. But her eyes were on the floor. Presently Rollo roused himself, and stretching out his hand took Wych Hazel's and drew her nearer to him.

'I cannot go and leave this question undecided,' he said; 'and I must go soon. How shall it be settled, Wych?'

Some things are hard to talk of, which yet are in the thoughts; and contingencies take life and reality by being put in words. The shadow on the girl's face grew deep as she answered,yet the answer was quiet.

'You know, reverse the case, you would not be bound by any words of mine. You knowthat you are what I have in the world. And I know, that ifif' there was a moment's pause,'that if it came to that, I should go. I could not be bound.'

The gravity of his face as he listened to her, you could hardly call it a shadow, changed and flickered with a quivering smile; and the eyes flashed and then darkened again. The end was, he drew Wych Hazel into his arms, clasping her very tight.

'I knowI know,' he said, kissing her face with passionate touches which had all the sorrow of the time, as well as all the joy, in them. 'I know. All the same, I will not have you there, Hazel, if I am ill. I should settle the matter very quickly with anybody else; but you disarm me. I cannot stir a step without hurting you. What shall I say to you?' he went on, holding her fast, and stroking the hair back from her forehead with the gentlest possible touch. 'It has come sooner than I expected, this sort of trial, which generally comes, I suppose, whenever two lives that have been separate join together to become one. There will be differences of judgment, or of feeling; and what is to happen then? And what am I to fall back upon, when love and authority have both proved insufficient? for I have authority as your guardian. I shall have to ask now for your promise; the promise that you never break. For I will be secure on this head, before I leave the house, Hazel.'

'People should have reasons for exerting their authority.'

'Of that,' said Dane with the same gentleness, but very steadily, 'he who exerts it must be the judge himself.'

'Yes!' said Hazel, the impetuous element asserting itself once more, 'but there is no use in beginning as you cannot go on. Do you mean that alwaysI mean in futureif anything were the matter with you, the first thing would be to send me out of the house?'

'I hope not!' said Dane smiling. 'In my understanding of it, husband and wife belong to one another, and are inseparable. There are conceivable circumstances in which I might do it.'

A slight lift of the eyebrows dealt for a moment with this opinion and let it drop. Into those imaginary regions Hazel did not see fit to go. Nor into any others then. The flush of excitement died away, and the weary look settled down upon brow and lips. She said no more.

Rollo watched her a little while, then stooped and kissed her.

'I must go. Give me your promise, Hazel, that you will not come near the Hollow without my leave.'

She answered with a certain subdued tone that matched the face,

'I have no intention of coming. Your command is enough. If I can keep it, I will. No amount of promises could make my words any stronger.' But she looked up again, one of her swift eager looks, which again fell in silent gravity. There was scarcely another word said; except one.

'Look away from second causes, Hazel.'

Linking her fingers round his hand, so she went with him silently through the hall and down the steps; and stood there until he rode away into the darkness and the light of his work, and she came back into the light and the darkness of her own house.

CHAPTER XVII.

ALONE IN THE FIGHT.

Nature, with all her many faces, her thousand voices has seldom a look or a tone to help our sorrow. Her joy is too endless in its upspringing, her tears are too fresh and sweet; even the calm steadiness of her quiet is to bewildered thoughts like the unflickering coast light, against which the wild birds of the ocean dash themselves, blinded, in the storm. Wych Hazel stood still at the foot of the steps, until not even imagination could hear so much as an echo of the rapid trot which she was not to hear again for so long a time. The sweet October night, its winds asleep, its insects silenced with a slight frost, its stars wheeling their brilliant courses without a cloud, all smote her like a pain. Then some faint stir of air brought, distantly and sweet, the scent of the woods where they had been chestnutting that very day. With a half cry the girl turned and fled up the steps, locking the door behind her; remembering then keenly what else she was shutting out. She went back to the red room, and stood thereshe and the spirit of desolation. There was no tea tray, happily, with its cheerful reminders; but there was the corner of the mantelpiece, and the spot on the rug, and the firenow slowly wearing down to embers, and the embers to ashes. There was her foot cushionand the crimson bergre. But she could not touch anything,could not take up the tongs which he had set down, even to put the fire in safe order for the night; some one else must do that. Slowly she went round the room, with a glance at everything; passed on to the door and stood looking back; then shut it and went slowly up the stairs. Midway she sat down and leaned her head against the banisters. Sat there she knew not how long, until she heard Mrs. Bywank's step going the rounds below; then rose and went on again. But as Wych Hazel's little foot passed slowly up from stair to stair, one thing in her mind came out in clear black and white, of one thing she was sure: she must lay hold of those immutable things after which she had striven before. Mere hoping would not do, she must make sure. In the happiness of the last weeks, she had said, like David in his prosperity, "I shall never be moved," where was it all now? Above all other thoughts, even to-night, this came: she could not live so. Tossed by one storm upon a roof here, and by the next one carried out to sea. Something to hold her, something that she could hold,that she must have.

Intensely bitter thoughts flocked in along with this. The hand she had clasped so lately, and the way it had clasped her; a longing that would hardly be gainsaid for the touch of it again. Was she forgetting that? was she trying to loosen that bond? She paused, leaning back against the wall, holding her hands tight. But even with the answer the other cry came up: the world was all reeling under her feet,she must have something that would stand. For the time everything else gave way. It was true, this trouble might pass,then others would come: others from which even Dane could not shield her. Already, twice in her little life, twice in three months, had such a crisis come. Mrs. Bywank got no sight of her that night; only gentle answers to enquiries through the closed door; and Hazel lighted her study lamp, and opening her Bible at the ninety-first psalm, and setting it up before her in the great easy chair, knelt down before it and laid her head down too. No need to go over the printed words,there was not one of them she did not know. But was there anything there to help? She went them over to herself, verse by verse, and verse after verse was not for her. It was Dane who had taken that stand, who was leading that life; these promises were all to him. No arrow of darkness was his fearshe knew that well: no pestilence walking at his side could alarm him. But as she went on, half triumphantly at first, with the detail of his faith and his security, the vision of his danger come too; and a long restless fit of pain ended all study for that time. Ended itself at last in sleep,and the dreams of what was about him, and thoughts of what he was about, gave no token of their presence but a sob or a sigh, until the few remaining hours of the night swept by, and the morning broke.

As I said somewhere else, the new day is often good for uncertainties. The foolish fears, the needless alarms, the whole buzzing troop of fidgets that come out in the darkness, go back to their swamps and hiding places when the day has fairly come. They cannot make head against the wholesome freshness of the morning wind. Then painted hopes and lace-winged fancies flit out to take their place: things certainly are better, or they will be better, or they never have been bad.

But certainties are another matter. The new burdens, laid down in sleep, but now to be taken up, and adjusted, and borne on through all the ins and outs of the coming day. Morning does nothing for them, but fasten them on securely, with a heavy hand.

Wych Hazel roused herself up as the day came on, and looked things in the face so long, that her own face got little attention. However, Phoebeand the force of habitsent her down in the usual daintiness, at the usual time, to receive Mr. Falkirk, who after all did not come. But Dingee was on hand, and so Hazel made believe over her breakfast, quite successfully, and carried on her mental fight of questions the while with no success at all. So on through the day, until dinner time brought Mr. Falkirk; so on, with a semi-consciousness, through all the evening's talk; and when at length Wych Hazel went to her room again, it was with all the trouble of last night, and a day's worry additional. She knew what she wanted,she did not seem to know how to get it. Those shining words lay up so high, above her reach: a mountain head lifting itself out of the fogs of the valley wherein she dwelt. As for the first verse of her psalm, it might as well have been a description of Gabriel, for any use to her,so she thought, shrinking back from the words. Then for the second verse,yes, there was human weakness thereor had been. Some time a refuge had been needed: but so long ago, that the years of calm security had wiped out even the thought of defencelessness. That was like Dane: she did not believe it ever occurred to him that he wanted anything, or could. What was he doing now to-night, in the darkness?Hazel rose and went to the window. What work it must be, going round among the shadows of the Hollow, without a moon!but then he would be in the houses,darker still! She knew; she had sat there through one evening.She stood still at the window, going over half mechanically to herself the next verses. "Surely,"yes, it was all 'surely,' for him! was there nothing for her? She was not in all the psalm, Hazel thought. Unlessyes, that might fit well enough: she might stand for "the wicked" in the eighth verse. For studying the shining words that went before, there had come to her a feeling of soil, a sense of degradation, all new, and utterly painful.

'No use to consider that now,' she said, knotting her hands together as she went back to her seat. 'I want help. And I begin to think how much I want it, I shall lose my wits.'Was there nothing for her?

Again the promises ran on as before, with new images, fresh wording. There were angels enough keeping watch over Morton Hollow to-night!was there no spare one to come to Chickaree?Hazel put her head down and sobbed like a child in her loneliness and desolation.

Next day she tried another plan, and began at the end of her psalm, passing over the promise of long life as not just now of much interest. And honour,she did not want that; nor deliverance, where no devil was at hand. But this!

"I will be with him"

"I will answer him"

Was it for her?To whom was it said?

"He shall call upon me,"ah, that she had done a great many times!this was not the whole description. Who was it then who should be heard?She ran back over the words rapidly, fastening then upon these few:

"Because he hath set his love upon me"!and Hazel knew she had set her love upon some one else.

It was very bitter: the struggle was sharp and long: and duty and possibility, and wrong and right, fought each other and fired upon their own men.

She could not take back her love: that was impossible. She might die, but that she could not do. And now with a certain gleam of comfort, Hazel remembered that Dane had not withdrawn his. How had he managed then? After all, it did not touch the question much,he was a man, dependent of no one: she was a girl, with nothing in the world but him. Yet she wanted more. A strength above his, a love even more sure: "the things which cannot be shaken."

So, slowly, she went back over the verses, laying hold still of but that one thing in her way:

"He shall call upon me, and I will answer him."

Yes, it must be meant for her. And Hazel tried to shut her eyes to the character that went with the promise. People like that, she argued, would need nothing,it must be for her. But oh she had called so very often!Far back in the psalm, that is, close at the beginning, another word flamed up before her in a sudden illumination: a word she had read and reread, but now it stopped her short. Another three words, that is:

"I will say."

Something that seemed to head the long list of blessings, something for her. But it was something for her to do. What, then?

"I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust."

"I will say."But close upon that followed "Surely."

Could she say it? Was she ready for that absolute choice? The words came to her as she had heard Dr. Maryland read them:

"You do now declare and avouch the Lord Jehovah to be your God; and Jesus Christ to be your Saviour; and the Holy Spirit to be your sanctifier.

"You do solemnly give yourself away, in a covenant to be revoked, to be his willing servant forever."

She had noticed the words so often, half putting them to herself in imagination, that now they came back to her with clear distinctness. This was what the psalm meant; nothing less. "A willing servant?" Could she promise it? she, who hated control and loved so dearly her own pleasure? But it all came to that:

"I will say of the Lord, He is my God."

Back and forth, back and forth, went thoughts and will and purpose: sometimes almost persuaded, sometimes all up in arms. Something gentler than need was lacking, something stronger than fear must work. Slowly and sadly she turned over the leaves, far on and on, to the other marked point: seeing them then, those common words of print that she had read so often, seeing them then in letters of flashing light.

"For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."2 Cor. 5. 14, 15.

Hazel laid her face down upon the open page, and said from her heart,

"I will."

CHAPTER XVIII.

SETTLEMENTS.

To go back a little.

When Mr. Falkirk came to dinner that first day, he was very taciturn and grumpy indeed until soup and fish and third course were disposed of. Then when he got a chance with Dingee out of the room, Mr. Falkirk opened his mouth for the discussion of somewhat besides grapes and peaches.

'So I understand, Miss Hazel, you have arranged with your other guardian to dispense with my services.'

Wych Hazel was not in a mood even for blushing, that day. Thoughts were too deeply and abstractedly busy, and spirits were under too great a weight, for the usual quick play of lights and colours to which Mr. Falkirk was accustomed. A faint little extra tinge was all that came with the grave answer,

'May I ask who has been talking about me, sir?'

'Your future guardian, Miss Hazel; no less. Stopped at my door last night, on horseback, to say in three minutes what would have been more fittingly talked of in three hours.'

Slowly at first, then quick and vivid, the roses stirred and flamed up in the thoughtful face, but she said nothing. Only pushed away her plate, as if peaches and that could not go on together.

'I would like to know from you whether it is a thing fixed and settled and unalterable; absolutely done? I suppose it is, or he would not have said it.'

She darted a look at him.

'Do you found suppositions upon such slight circumstantial evidence, Mr. Falkirk?'

'Sometimes, Miss Hazel, when the thing happens to be particularly difficult of belief.'

'Unalterable?' Hazel repeated, half to herself,'few things are that. Suppose your supposition were a mistake, Mr. Falkirk,what then?'

'Can you tell me that it is?' he said, looking across the table to her with a gaze that would find the truth.

'Would you be glad?' she answered. 'And will you tell me why?'

Then Dingee came in with coffee, and a bouquet; and Hazel sat playing idly with the flowers while Dingee set out the cups, the scent of heliotrope and geranium filling the room. While Dingee was near, Mr. Falkirk was silent; but eyeing the girl however, the flowers, her action, with a glance that took it all in and lost no item; not a graceful movement nor a tint of the picture.

'Yes,' he said firmly when the boy was gone, 'I should be glad. You are just fit for the play you are playing now; it is not played out, and should not be, for some time to come. You are young, and ought to be free; and you are rich, Miss Hazel, and ought not to marry somebody who will ruin you.'

For a minute Hazel spoke not for surprise, and then she let a prudent pause lap on to that. For she had no mind just then to get up a tirade for Mr. Rollo's benefit, and all the same she felt her blood stirring.

'Is this all I am fit for?' she said: but the laugh was a little nervous.

'I said nothing you need take umbrage at,' her guardian returned somewhat bitterly. 'I spoke only in care for you, Miss Hazel; not in depreciation. I am about the last man in the world to do that.'

'It is nothing very new for you to speak in depreciation of me, sir,' said his ward, in her old privileged manner. 'You know you never did think I was good for much.'

'Enough to be worth taking care of,' growled Mr. Falkirk in a tone which bespoke a mingling of feelings.

'Well, sir,I never was fond of that processbut I have submitted indifferently well, I hope.'

'Allow me to ask, Miss Hazel,what sort of care do you expect in the future?'

Hazel fairly looked at him and opened her eyes. 'Really, Mr. Falkirk,' she said, 'you are very amazing!'

'You know, I must suppose, that yourguardianhas proved himself unfit to take care of your fortune, inasmuch as he has thrown away his own. And when fortune is gone, Miss Kennedy, the means of taking care of you are gone along with it. I warn you, though it may not be in time.'

Wych Hazel's hands took a great grip of each other. It was pretty hard to bear this to-day.

'For the last year and a half, Mr. Falkirk, the care of mein every respecthas been referred, and referred, and referred, to other judgment than your own. I used to think you were tired of me, that you had lost your wits Now, you think I have lost mine.'

'The judgment which I was obliged to consult, and which could not hurt you as long as I remained a consenting party, will have no restraint when my decisions are dispensed with. He can pitch all your thousands after his own, if he thinks proper.'

'Yes, you can do anything with an "if," ' said Hazel, trying to keep herself quiet.

'He will think it proper,' said Mr. Falkirk.

'You must have learned a good deal in three minutes, sir.'

'He is an enthusiasta fanatic, I should call it; and an enthusiast sees but one object in the universe, and that the object of his enthusiasm. It is all right, to him; but it is all wrong for you.'

It might have been the sheer pressure of excitement, it might have been some idea that the present object of Mr. Rollo's enthusiasm was nearer at hand than Mr. Falkirk thought; but Wych Hazel's sweet laugh rang out. She knew again that the laugh was nervous, but it was uncontrollable none the less.

Mr. Falkirk's countenance changed slightly, as though he had winced with some secret pain; but it did not come out in words, if the feeling existed. He waited till the laugh had died away, and even the stillness spoke of reaction in the mind of the laugher; and then he went on with a quiet unchanged tone,

'There is no use in going into this now. I wish merely to say, Miss Hazel, that the habit of taking care for your interests is too old with me, and has become too strong, to be immediately laid aside. I shall do my best to procure a settlement of your proprietyas much of it as possibleupon yourself; and I mention this now simply to beg of you that you will not interpose any sentimental or quixotic objection on your own part. I shall endeavour to get Dr. Maryland to back me; he must see the propriety of the step. I only ask you to keep still.'

Mr. Falkirk rose. In a moment Wych Hazel was at his side, linking her little hands on his arm in the old fashion.

'What have I done,' she said, 'that you speak so to me? Have I been so wayward and wilful that I have really chafed all your love away, and there is nothing left but dry care?'

He touched her hand as he rarely had ever done, with a caressing, glancing touch, slight and short; but the man was silent. Wych Hazel drew him along, softly walking him up and down through the room, but she too said nothing, feeling perplexed and hurt, and not well knowing why. It was nothing new for Mr. Falkirk's words to be dry, but to-night they were so hard!and when had he ever called her Miss Kennedy, in the worst of times? For once her instinct was at fault.

'I must go,' said Mr. Falkirk, stopping short after a turn or two.

'It is such an old story for me to make mistakes' Hazel began hesitatingly.

'Have you made this one unwittingly?' he asked with sudden eagerness.

Hazel dropped his arm and stood off with the air which Mr. Falkirk knew very well.

'This one does not happen to exist,' she said. 'But I meanI should think you were so used to the reality, sir, that the idea would not give you much trouble. And there is one thing more I ought to say.'

'I am not troubled by an idea, Miss Hazel. What is the other thing?'

Not an easy one to speak, by the shewing, as she stood there gathering her forces. But the words came clear and low.

'It will be a good day for me, Mr. Falkirk,I shall have more hope of myself,when I am as willing to be poor for the sake of other people, asMr. Rollois. Would you feel more sure of my being taken care of, if you knew that he spent all he has upon himself?'

'Yes. He is spending it upon a vagarya chimera; and that is as much as to say he is throwing it into a quicksand. He will go down with it.'

'I wonder what will be the result of that?' said Wych Hazel, in the cool way she could sometimes assume when she felt particularly hot.

'I don't like to look at the result,' said Mr. Falkirk. 'I will go, if you please, Miss Hazel.But if you will be so good as not to oppose me, the result shall not be your destitution.'

'Oppose you!' said Hazel. 'With such an object in view!'But then the mocking tone changed, and she said sorrowfully'I beg your pardon, Mr. Falkirk!But you are vexed, sir, and then you always vex me. AndI was not just ready for this to-night.'

'You need not be vexed that I want to take care of you,' Mr. Falkirk returned.

'No, sir. There are great many things I need not be,' said Hazel.

'I will try to do it. I may not succeed. Good-night.'

She put her hands on his arm again, following his lead now towards the door. But on the way another thought struck her.

'Mr. Falkirk,' she said suddenly, 'if you try to do something which you know I would not likeor in a way I should not like,you must remember that I will never say yes to it. Not if there were fifty quicksands in the way!'

'Miss Hazel,' returned her guardian, 'I have not so long held my office without finding out that it is impossible to tell beforehand what you would like, or in what way you would like it. I must work in the dark; unless you prefer to give me illumination.'

'I should like,' said Hazel bravely, 'what Mr. Rollo would have a right to like. I suppose Mr. Falkirk will know what that is.'

'Pardon me. My only concern is with what you would have a right to like.'

'Very well,' she answered,'if you choose to put it so. But I could have no right to like anything which should seem like a reflection,anything that could cast the least possible shade of dishonour.Further than that, I do not see how it matters.'

'Does it matter to you whether you are your own mistress or not?' said Mr. Falkirk, confronting her now with the question.

'I suppose that is past praying for,' said Hazel with a deep blush. 'But I never have been, yet.'

'You have in money matters.'

'About my own silks and sugarplums. No further, sir.'

'Do you wish it to be "no further" always?'

'I like my own way better than anything in the world,' said Hazel, 'except'and she paused, and the crimson mounted again, 'except the honour and dignity and standing of the people I love. You know better than I, Mr. Falkirk, whether both things can be cared for together; but if one has to go down, it must be my will.'

'If it can be done consistently with other people's "dignity and standing," you would like to have control of your own property?'

'It cannot be so done.'

'It can be so doneif I and Dr. Maryland do it.'

'No,' said Hazel, 'there is too much of it.'

'Will you please explain?'

'Too much money,too much land,the property is too large.'

'Too large to be divided, that is.'

Hazel turned off with a gesture of distressful impatiencethen faced her guardian again.

'Don't you see, Mr. Falkirk?' she said,'do you need to be told? Mr. Rollo could not possibly be only my agent.'

'I do not see that he need. You are competent surely to spend your own money, in the way you like best.'

'Very competent!' said Hazel gravely. 'And to manage my estate. Then I will begin at once, if you please, Mr. Falkirk, and you can send up to-morrow all the deeds and leases and writings in your possession. It will be quite a nice little amusement for me.'

'Miss Hazel, you talk nonsense,' said her guardian. 'I cannot deliver up my charge, except in hands that will have absolute rule over it; unless I can secure a separate portion for you. The will makes him master, in the event of his marrying you.'

Hazel made no reply. The speech was full of words that she did not like. And Mr. Falkirk quitted the room.

If he had wished to render his ward uncomfortable, he had made a hit,stirring up thoughts and questions which had been ready enough before, only always held in check by the presence and influence that were stronger yet. But to-night she was heart-sore to begin with, and it had chafed her extremely that not all her pleading of the night before had carried a single point. The words "master," and "absolute control," came with particular jarring effect. She brought a foot-cushion to the front of the fire, there where she was in the dining-room; and rested her head upon her hands and thought.

CHAPTER XIX.

SCHOOLING.

All Hazel's news thus far had come from Dr. Maryland's house; brought by Primrose or sent in a note. There was not much to tell; at least not much that anybody wanted to tell. The sick-beds in the two cabins, the heavy atmosphere of disease, the terrible quarantine, the weary tension of day and night, the incessant strain on the physical and mental strength of the few nurses,nobody wrote or spoke of these. The suspense, nobody spoke of that either. The weeks of October and November slowly ran out, and the days of December began to follow.

One mild, gentle winter morning, Dr. Maryland's little old gig mounted the hill to Chickaree.

Dr. Maryland had not been there, as it happened, for a long time; not since the event which had made such a change in all the circumstances of its mistress; nor in all that time had he seen Hazel. The place looked wintry enough to-day, with its bare trees, and here and there the remnant of a light snow that had fallen lately; but the dropped leaves were carried away, and the sweep shewed fresh touches of the rake; everything was in perfect order. Dingee ushered the visiter into the great drawing-room, to warm himself by a corresponding fire; and there in a minute Hazel joined him, looking grave and flushed. The doctor had not sat down; he turned to face her as she came in.

'Well, my dear!' said he cheerily. 'How do you do?'

'Very well, sir, thank you.'

'You are all alone? Mr. Falkirk is away, I understand; just gone?'

'Yes, sir.'

'Gone to a sick sister in England, and left you alone.'

'Yes, sir. It is nothing very new for me to be alone,' said Hazel.

'But for you to be so much alone? Well, I suppose he thought there would be soon somebody to take care of you. We have the good news now that those poor people seem to be all getting well. Arthur reports that there are no new cases. I am most thankful!'

Hazel answered with merely a gesture of assent. She had no words to say that she could say.

'I suppose Dane would be soon out of quarantine now.But he is not quite well himself, Arthur tells me; knocked up by watching and incessant exertions, I suppose.'

For a minute Hazel held her breathgrowing so white that even the old doctor must see it. Then she turned away from him in a gentle, noiseless way, and leaned her head down upon the back of her chair. She must have support somewhere.

'It is nothing but a low feverish affection,' Dr. Maryland hastened to say. 'May be tedious, perhaps, for a while, but shews no dangerous symptoms at present. We must not anticipate evil, my dear.'

Hazel did not answer that; but presently she sat up again and asked one or two quiet questions as to time and place.

'He is at Gyda's, my dear; they took him up there, being the nearest place. Mrs. Borresen is a good nurse, and devoted to him; and so is Arthur. He will not want anything. Hazel, my child, can you cast your cares off on the one arm strong to help?'

She started up and went to the fire, picking up brands and pushing the red coals right and left, until the wood burst out into brilliant flame. And all the time she was saying to herself, 'He will not have me,he does not want me.' But she came back to her place again without a word. Dr. Maryland looked on, pitying, feeling for her, and yet oddly without anything to say. He had lived so long and seen so much of life and had got so far above its changes; more, he had lived so much in his study and felt life so little except in contemplation, and with so small an admixture of practical experience of human nature, that he looked at the young thing before him and was conscious of his unreadiness, and in some sort of his unfitness, to minister to her.

'Are you lonely, my dear? Would you like to have Primrose come and keep you company?'

'Oh no!' said Hazel hastily. Then she began again, and tried to catch up her eager words and soften off their corners; speaking with a wistful affectionate tone that was half pleading, half deprecating. 'I meanI do not want anybody with me, sir. I am out a great dealand sometimes very busy at home. Andsome other time, maybe, Primrose will come.'

Dr. Maryland considered her with a recognizing smile on his lips, and a very tender look in his thoughtful eyes.

'I understand,' he said. 'There is room in the house for only one presence just now.Are you going to be a true helpmeet to Dane, Hazel, in all his work?'

'I do not know, sir.'Hazel always classed such questions, coming to a preoccupied mind, under the general head of "pins and needles," and never by any chance gave them much of an answer.

'He will want a helpmeet. A wife can hinder her husband, or help him, very materially. Dane has taken a great deal on his shoulders. He thinks you will be a help to him; "the best possible," he told me one day, when I ventured to ask him.'

The words shook her so, coming close as they did upon the news of his illness, upon thoughts of his danger, that for a minute Hazel moved like one in bodily pain; and more than one minute went by, before she answered, low and huskily,'He knew I would try.'

'My dear, there is only one way,' the old doctor said very tenderly. 'Dane has set out to follow his Master. If you would help him, you must follow with him.'

Hazel glanced up at the kind face from under her eyelashes. Could she dare open her heart to him? No,young as she was, her life experience had cut deeper channels than Dr. Maryland's own; he could not follow her; it was no use; she must bear the trials and work out her problems alone.

'I know, sir,' she said gently. But she said no more. And perhaps Dr. Maryland had an intuitive sense that the right words could not be spoken just then, and that the wrong ones would be worse than an impertinence. For he only looked gravely at the young creature, and added no more either of counsel or comfort at that time. He did not stay long, nor talk much while he staid, of anything; but he was thoughtfully observant of Hazel. He gave her a parting shot on taking leave.

'Good-bye, my dear,' he said with a kind and shrewd smile. 'I hope Dane will not let you have your own way too much for your good;but I am afraid of it!'

The girl's eyes flashed up at him then, as if she thought there was rather less danger of that than of any other one thing in the world. Then she ran down the steps after her old friend, and gave little finishing touches to his comfort in the shape of a foot-muff and an extra lap-robe, and held his hand for a minute in both hers,all with very few words and yet saying a great deal. And when Dr. Maryland reached home, he found that a basket of game had in some surreptitious manner got into his gig.

'Small danger of that!' Hazel thought, going back to his remark, as she went back into the house. But it was not such a question that brought the little hands in so weary fashion over her face. She stood very still for a minute, and then went swiftly upstairs to finish the work which Dr. Maryland had interrupted. That could not wait; and Hazel was learning, slowly, that the indulgence of one's own sorrow can. So the work was well done; only with two or three sighs breathed over it, which gave kind Mrs. Bywank a heartache for the rest of the day. But then Hazel hastily swallowed a cup of the chicken broth and went off to her room. It had come now, without if or perhaps, and she could only sit down and face it. The one person in all the world to whom she belonged,the only one that belonged to her!

For a while, in the bitterness of the knowledge that he was sick, Hazel seemed to herself half benumbed; and sat stupidly dwelling on that one fact, feeling it, and yet less with a sense of pain than of an intolerable burden. A weight that made her stir and move sometimes, as if she could get away from it so. It was no use to tell her not to anticipate; to say he was not much sick; that was thin ice, which would not bear. And now on a sudden Hazel found herself confronted with a new enemy, and was deep in the fight. What then? Only her own will in a new shape.

She had come out so gently and sweetly, so clearly too, from the months of restless perplexity and questioning; she had agreed, she had decided, that her will should be the Lord's will. Now came a sudden sharp test. She had chosen heaven, with earth yet in her hand,how if earth were taken away? And what if to do the Lord's will should be all that was left her, to fill her life? Did her consent, did her acceptance, reach so far?

AndOh how hard that was!to study the question, she must throw full upon it the light (or the darkness) of things that might be. Things that she would not have let any one say to her, knife- edged possibilities, came and went and came again, till Hazel stopped her ears and buried her face in the cushions and did everything in the world to shut them out. What use? she had to consider them. Was she willing now that the Lord should do what he pleased with him?She could not word it any other way. And the fight was long: and time and again pain came in such measure that she could attend only to that. And so the day went by, with occasional interruptions, and then the unbroken night.

She could submit,she must submit: could she accept? Nothing was anything without that. And she was getting almost too worn out to know whether she could or not. So she would sit, with her face buried in her hands, putting those fearful questions to herself, and with answering shivers running over her from head to foot. Then would come an interval of restless pacing the floor, thinking all sorts of things; chiefly, that the very minute it was light she would set off for Morton Hollow. What would that serve? what could she do, if she were there? But one Hand could meddle with these things, and work its will. And for a while a bitter sense of the Lord's absolute power seemed to lie on her head and heart till she felt crushed. She could not walk any longer, she could not debate questions; she could only lay her head against the arm of the chair and sit still, bearing that dull pain, and starting at the sharp twinges that now and then shot through it.

There came to her at last, as she sat there, suddenly, the old words. Words read to her so long ago, and learned so lately. They had reached her need then, and there she had in a sort left them, bound up with that. But once more now they came, so new, so glorious, all filled with light.

"For the love of Christ constraineth us"!The key to life work, but no less to life endurance. And the key turned softly, and the bolts flew back, and Wych Hazel covered her face saying eagerly, 'Yes, yes!'

But then, even with the saying, she broke quite down, and a stormy flood of tears swept over her, and left her at last asleep.

There was no going back when the day dawned. But Hazel soon found that this question was not to be ended once for all, like the other. It came up anew with each new morning, and must be so met, and answered: in full view of what unknown possibilities the day might bring or the night have brought, the assenting 'yes' must be spoken. The struggle was long, sometimes, and sometimes it was late before she left her room; but those who saw her face of victory when she came would remember it always.

Still, the days were long. And hearts are weak; and Hazel grew exceedingly weary. Chafing most of all against the barriers that kept her from Morton Hollow. At first, when Dr. Maryland left her that night she thought she should go with the sunrise next day. Then recollected herself.

'I said I would follow his bidding if I could,' she remembered, 'and I can wait one day.'

And so she could wait two, and so she waited on. One day she must go; the next, she would write and ask permission. 'But he never asked me to write!'she thought suddenly, covering her face in shame. 'What would he think of me?' But oh, why had he given such orders?

It was the old story,she was supposed to have no discretion.

'I dare say he thought I should rush over if I had a fingerache!' she said with some natural indignation. Was she then really so little to be trusted? Wych Hazel sat down to study the matter, and as usual, before the exercise had gone on long, she began to foot up hard things against herself. How she had talked to him that night! what things she had told him! Then afterwards, what other things she had proposed to do,propositions that were stamped at once with the seal of impropriety. Hazel pressed her hands to her cheeks, trying to cool off those painful flushes. Wellhe should see now!She could wait, if he could. Which praiseworthy climax was reachedlike the top of Mount Washingtonin a shower of rain. But the whole effect of the musings was to make her shrink within herself, and take up again all the old shyness which had been yielding, little by little, before the daily intercourse of the month past. Prim found her very stately over reports, after this; and even good Dr. Maryland would often fare no better, and betake himself home in an extremely puzzled state of mind. That the girl was half breaking her heart over the twofold state of things, nobody would have guessed. Unless, possibly, Mrs. Bywank.

Meantime, the purchase of the Hollow property from Gov. Powder had been completed; and the fine fall weather tempting people to stay and come, and the region being thus all full of guests, Chickaree had been regularly besieged during most of these two months. And almost at the time the sickness broke out in the Hollow, Mr. Falkirk had been summoned to England, where his only remaining sister was living, with the news that she was very ill. Mr. Falkirk had nevertheless stood to his post, until the fever was gone in the Hollow and he saw that Rollo would soon be able to resume his place. And then he had gone, much to Wych Hazel's disgust. 'It seems,' she said, 'that I can never want anybodyeven my own guardians,so much as somebody else!'

CHAPTER XX.

ABOUT CHRISTMAS.

The days lingered along, but no worse news came. Rollo was slowly regaining his usual condition. Still December was half gone before with all his good will he could undertake the drive from the Hollow to Chickaree.

Late one afternoon Dr. Arthur set him down at the old house door. A cool winter breeze was fitfully rustling the dry leaves and giving a monitory brush past the house now and then; whispering that Christmas was near, and snow coming. Staying for no look at the sunlight in the tree-tops, Rollo marched in and went straight to the red room. He stood suddenly still on opening the door. No one was there, not even the presence of a fire, but chair and foot-cushion stood as they had been left two months before; the ashes had not been removed, and the flowers in the vase had faded and dropped with no renewal. Rollo next went down the hall to Mrs. Bywank's quarters. Here a side door stood open, and Mrs. Bywank herself stood on the steps shading her eyes and gazing down the road.

'What are you looking for, Mrs. Bywank?' said a cheery voice behind her.

'Mr. Rollo!' cried the old housekeeper turning with a delighted face. 'I am glad to see you again sir, surely! And well-nigh yourself again! I am just looking for Miss Wychit is time she was home.'

'Where is she?'

'Off and away,' said Mrs. Bywank, with the smile of one who knows more than his questioner. 'She's a busy little mortal, these days.'

'What does she find to be busy about?'

'I should like to tell you the whole story, sir,if we had time,' said Mrs. Bywank with a glance down the road. 'She'll never telland I think you ought to know. Step this way, Mr. Rollo, and you can see just as well and be more comfortable.'

Mrs. Bywank led the way to a little corner room where fire and easy chairs and a large window commanding the approach.

'I suppose you'd like to hear, sir,' she said as she replenished the fire, 'how the world has gone on down this way for two months back?'

'Very much,'Dane said gravely, with however a restless look out of the window.

'Well sir, about the first days I cannot say much. I hardly saw Miss Wych at all. She used to dress up and come down and meet Mr. Falkirk, and then she'd go back to her room, and there she staid. Only she'd given me orders about the articles for the Hollow.

'So one morning, just as the beef and things were brought into my kitchen, and one of the maids had gone down for a kettle, in walked Miss Wych. 'Byo,' says she, 'I am going to make everything myself in future.''But my dear!' said I, 'you do not know how.'

'I am going to learn,' says she.

'Well,' said I, 'you can look on and learn.'

'I will do it and learn,' says sheand she marched right up to me and untied my big apron and put it on herself; for I don't believe then she had an apron belonging to her.'

Without ceasing to keep watch of the window, Dane's eyes gave token of hearing and heeding, growing large and soft, with a flash coming across them now and then.

'It's a nice business to hinder Miss Wych when she has a mind,' Mrs. Bywank went on; 'but I couldn't see her tiring herself over the fireso I said, 'But my dear, think of your hands! No gloves!'

'What about my hands?' says she.

'Cooking is bad for them, Miss Wych,' says I.

'Is it?' said she. 'Well, they've had their share of being ornamental. What is the first thing to do, Byo?'

'So I felt desperate,and said I, 'My dear, when Mr. Rollo comes back he will not like to find your hands any different from what they are now.'She turned round upon me so,' said Mrs. Bywank laughing a little, 'that I didn't know what she would say to me for my impertinence. However, she only gave me one great look out of her eyes, and then stood looking down at her hands, and then she ran off,and was gone a good little while. And I felt so bad I couldn't set to work nor anything, till at last I knew it must be done, and I told the girl to set the kettle on. And just then back she came, lookingWell, you'll know some day, sir, how Miss Wych can look,' said Mrs. Bywank with dim eyes. 'However, the gloves were on; and she just took hold, steady and quiet as an old hand, and never opened her lips but to ask a question. Of course I sat by and directed, and I kept a girl there to lift and run; but from that day Miss Wych made every single thing that went to the Hollow or to you, sirwith her own little fingers. So that kept her fast all the mornings.'

Dane's eyes did not leave the window. His lips took a firmer compression.

'Then in the afternoons she just shut herself up again,and I knew that would no do, and I begged her to go out. So she said at last she couldn't go and come without such a trainand it did seem as if people were bewitched, sure enough,' said Mrs. Bywank. 'I think there never was such a run on the house. What with you sick and Mr. Falkirk somehow not taking much noticeYou know he's gone, sir?'

'Yes.'

'Miss Wych took it rather to heart,' said Mrs. Bywank. 'She couldn't see why he went. But I asked her then why she didn't ride in the woods where nobody'd meet her.'If there was anything to do there!' she said. 'But nobody lives in my woods.''Ask Reo,' says I. 'He goes everywhere.'

'So I don't know what Reo told her, but now she's out all the afternoon; busy somewhere. And there!' said Mrs. Bywank, as a horseman passed the window,'it's hard to blame her for staying late. But there she comes!'and the old housekeeper went softly from the room.

At a little distance now he could see the brown horse and his rider, with Lewis following. Coming slowly at first, then with sudden haste as she saw a horseman at the door. Hazel knew her mistake in a moment, but she kept up her pace as the unwelcome visiter came on to meet her; and just at the steps deftly jumped herself off, giving no chance to civilities. Then after a few words of colloquy dismissed the intruder, and came slowly up the steps. There paused, looking wistfully down the empty road, and finally came in, taking notes and messages from Dingee.

'Give me tea directly,' she said. 'And admit no one, on any pretence whatever.'

'Mas' Falkirk?' suggested Dingee. 'Spose done come home?'

'Mr. Falkirk never asks admittance.'

'Mas' Rollo?'

'Did you hear what I said!'exclaimed his mistress; and Dingee vanished.

Wych Hazel turned for one more look at the road, drew a deep sigh that was half patient and half impatient; and then slowly pulling off cap and gloves came forward to the corner room, chanting softly to herself as she came

' "Endlich blht die Aloe,

"Endlich trgt der Palmbaum Frchte;

"Endlich schwindet Furcht und Weh,

"Endlich wird der Schmerz zu nichte;

"Endlich nah't das Freudenthal;

"Endlich, endlich kommt einmal!" '

But with the first step inside the door the girl stopped short, folding her hands over her eyes as if they were dazzled.

'Endlich?' repeated Rollo. But then there was a long silence.

'Endlichwhat?'

'Kommt einmal.But I thought it never would!'

'Ah, what do you know about it? I am very tired of living without you, Wych!'

'Yes.'Words were like sighs to-day.

'Yes? Do you say so? What do you know? There has been all these weeks a visionary presence of youthat was not youflitting before me continually; standing beside me, coming and going, by night and by day, with the very rustle of your garments and the look of your brown eyes; but I could not touch it, and it did not speak to me; it smiled at me, but the lips were silent; and the eyes sparkled and were sometimes wistful, but it passed on and vanished. It mocked me, it tantalized me. The experience was good for me perhaps; I was obliged to remind myself that I had something else to live for. In the night watches this presence came and brushed by melooked in at the doorstood between the rising sun and my eyeshovered like a vision in the moonlight; sorrowed over me when I was weary, and comforted me when I was sick. I mean, the vision did; but the fact of the vision tantalized me. Is this hand true flesh and blood?' He tried it with his lips. A shadow as of what had been came over the girl's face. She answered unsteadily

'You did not stand by me in my watches. You have been off at the very ends of the earth!AndO won't you let me go and get off my habit?'

'How long will you take?'

'Two minutes.'

If there were suspicious wet eyelashes when Miss Wych came back, she had at least by that time got herself in hand, as well as got rid of her habit. She came in noiseless and grave and quiet, in a soft shimmering rustle of deep red silk, and held out her hand again.

'You should not have stirred out, such a cold day,' she said. 'But come into the other room; it is warmer there.'

Dane had not sat down, he was standing watching for her; and now drew her within his arms again, in a seeming ignoring of her invitation.

'Have you been a good child all these weeks?'

'No.'

'Wherein not?'

'Primrose would have settled composedly down, and been happy in obeying orders. I wasn't a bit.'

'People are not all good after the same fashion,' said Dane laughing, holding her fast and looking at her. 'My little Wych was not happy, nor submissivebut obeyed orders nevertheless.'

'No,' said Wych Hazel slowly, 'I am not sure that I did. I had said I would keep away if I couldand I remembered how you might look at me if I went. So it was better to stay and die quietly at home.'

'Is that the footing on which we are to live in the future?' said Dane laughing and kissing her. He evidently was rather in a gay mood.

For all answer, Hazel drew him across the hall to the dining room, and sounding her whistle began to make preparations for tea; with a speed and energy before which Dingee flew round like a cat. Then, dismissing him, Hazel crossed over with soft steps to the side of the lounge and stood there a moment, looking down, searching out the traces of illness and fatigue. Dane was paler and thinner certainly than he had been two months before. But his colour was the colour of health, and his gray eye had certainly suffered from no faintness. It was very bright now as it met hers, and he sprang up.

'Nothing ails me,' he said. 'I am only tired with twelve miles in Arthur's buggy. You will have no doubt how I am, when you see how much work I mean to do before I go away.'

'You will not do any work to-night,' said Wych Hazel decidedly. And then she made herself very busy about Mr. Rollo's tea, with quiet dictatorship making him take and not take, as she saw fit. But I suppose he was easy to rule to-night, and had besides matter for study in the grave mouth and the eyes that would hardly meet his. Perhaps he began to observe that there was more work to do than he had been aware. Perhaps he saw, that in these two months of separation the old timidity, the old reserve, had grown up and flourished to an alarming extent. Just at first, when he came, defences had not been up, or his sudden appearance had flung them down; but it was rather the Wych Hazel of last year than of last October who sat before him now. Betraying herself now and then, it is true, by a look or a tone, but still on the whole keeping close guard. Clearly this was not to be an evening of confidences. Rollo made his observations for a little time; and then enquired gravely,

'What have you done with Mr. Falkirk?'

'His sister in England wanted him. He went to her. One ought to have six guardians, you perceive.'

'How do you expect to be taken care of this winter, in such a state of things?'

'I ought to give more trouble than ever,' said the girl, shaking her head,'after such an apprenticeship at taking care of myself.'

'I hope not,' said Dane demurely. 'But Hazel, it is time we began to talk about business. There is a great deal to be said, at least, before Arthur comes to fetch me. Do you know it is just a week, or little more, to Christmas?'

'Yes,' said Hazel. 'I know.'

'I might divide my subject categorically in two parts; how Christmas is to be kept in the Hollow, and how we shall keep it here. I want your best attention on both heads.'

'I have not thoughtI tried not to think. I wished Christmas a hundred miles away!'

'I am quite unable to fathom the mystery of that statement.'

'Yes, of course,' said Hazel; 'how should you know? But if you had been shut off here' and she gave her plate a little push, sitting back in her chair, as she might have done,and had donein many of the weary days gone by.

'Meanwhile Christmas is not a hundred miles off,' said Dane watching her. 'How shall we keep it?'

'I don't know. I never did keep it much.'

'First, there is the Hollow.'

'O in the Hollow!yes, certainly. They must all have a Christmas dinner, for one thing.'

'Well, go on. I want your help. I suppose they never kept Christmas much, either. What shall I do for them?'

'How many Christmas trees would reach through the Hollow?'

Dane shook his head. 'I am afraid we are hardly ready for that. And there is scant time. I must be content to do without the poetry, this year, and make everybody happy prosaically.'

'With roast beef and plum pudding,' said Hazel. 'But then I would rather find out real wants, and supply them. Could that be done?'

'Hardly. Not in detail. The time is too short. In general, there is always the want of good cheer and of joy-taking; or of anything to give cause for joy. How would it do, for Christmas, to send in supplies for a good dinner to every house? Then we can take breath and think about New Year's Day.'

'I suppose that could not fail. But then, to make them feel really like Christmas, they ought to have something they do not need.'

'I am open to suggestions,' said Dane smiling. 'As much as they are to the fruits of them. What shall I give them that they do not need? I think you are quite right, by the by; though it is not the precise light in which the subject is commonly viewed by the benefactors of their species.'

'Yes,' said Hazel. 'As if sleighing on the bare ground was good enough for people who generally walk. But you want them to forget the ground for a while, and go softly, and hear the bells.'

'What shall be the bells in this case?' said Rollo with his lips curling. 'Red apples? Or would pound papers of tea ring better? Or both make a chime?'

'With a small tinkle of sugarplums.And oh,' said Hazel eagerly, 'do give them some little niceties to put on! Or let me. I have great faith in the power of fresh collars and ribbands.'

'Cannot manage anything of that sort up here,' said Dane demurely. 'That will have to wait for New Year's Day. Three hundred and fifty pieces of roasting beefthree hundred and fifty pounds green teaditto bushels of red applesthree hundred and fifty pounds sugar candy? Will that meet your notions of a chime of bells for Christmas?'

Hazel mused over it.

'Perhaps'she said slowly. 'It is very difficult to know what will meet one's notions. If I could, I should like to give a littlejust a littlebit of a touch to every spot that wants touching. A touch of light to the shadow, a touch of healing to the pain; a flower for every barren place. And so I should not like to give them a Christmas which they could eat quite all up.'

Dane's lips had been giving way, and now he laughed out.

'You are as impracticable as if you were a fairy. All that takes time, Wych; and as I am not by nature knowing of all things, it takes study. One day you will accomplish it. But in the mean time, I should think they could not quite eat up their whole Christmas in a moment; and as I said, we will see what can be done for New Year. If you approve. At the same time, the subject is open for discussion.'

'But you need not think me more visionary than I am,' said Hazel with a shy glance and laugh. 'I did not mean anything quite silly. Of courseall the barren places,only God could fill them. But a touch to the sorrow, and a touch to the need, and a touch to the forlornness,that is what I meant.'

'I did not think you meant anything silly. Tell me more in particular. I thought I was giving a touch to the need, with the beef; and a touch to the pleasure, with the apples and candy; and a touch to the comfort, with the tea. What shall I add to the list?'

'Perhaps nothing,' said Hazel. 'But I meant You know, all those things are down on the same level,and I wanted to get in strength and exhilaration of some other sort. Though I suppose,' she added gravely, 'I cannot guess how much even of that may be in roast beef when one has never had it before. Strength and hope and purpose may come that way too.'

'They do,' said Dane gravely.

'Well then, you have only to go straight on. Maybe they could not understand some tunes yet, if the bells rang them out.'

'Straight on,' said Dane smiling. 'And that will furnish me with full occupation between this and Christmas. Now another thing. I feel for the people in the other mills,don't you?'

'O the other mills!' said Hazel. 'I feel for anybody who has any connection with John Charteris.'

'What can I do?'

'One would like to buy them all up! But failing that What did you think to do?'

'May I have your thoughts first?'

'I was only thinking,' said Hazel, 'that it would not be good taste to go in among the Charteris men at all as among your own. Anything there, I should think, must be more general and less personal. Or done by somebody else.'

'Whom, for instance?'

'If Josephine had married anything but diamonds'said Hazel, 'I might get hold of her. Or I might do it. But I suppose you would not like that. How could one manage?' The question put to the depths of her tea-cup.

'Why should I not like it?'

Wych Hazel laughed a little. 'Really,' she said, 'I do not know. Only you generally do dislike what I doand I am seldom so happy as to know why.'

'That is a statement which one may call unanswerable,' said Rollo with a significant line of lip. 'And how you dare say it, is more than I can understand. How could one manage? Nothing easier. I draw you a cheque, and you write me an order. Unless you prefer to employ another agent.'

'O I was not thinking of money,' said Hazel. 'But it would not be quite courteous to enact Christmas in the mills without a word to the ownerbad as he is. I wonder if I could get hold of Josephine and hide behind her?'

'No. But you can try it.What have you been doing, these two months?'

'Studying,in brief. I do not mean that I have done nothing else.'

'Learning what?' They had left the supper-table and stood together before the fire.

'Learning?that is another matter. When you study between fights, and fight between studies.'

'Hard learningwell learnt!' said he softly. 'Tell me more. Tell me results, Hazel.'

Hazel leaned her chin upon her hand, looking thoughtfully into the fire. 'Results?' she said. 'The result was unconditional surrender. At least I thought sountil'

'Until?'

'Until to-night. It is so good to have you back again!'she said with the same brown-study air.

Half laughing, with extreme tenderness at the same time and also the expression of great gladness, both his arms enfolded her, and they stood quite silent for a few minutes, till Dane stooped to reach her lips.

'You shall tell me the rest when you like,' said he. 'Do you want to tell me any more now?'

'You would not like the rest. It was a very dark time, at first, when you failed me.'

He was quite silent again. Then drew her off to the sofa.

'I have another subject to talk about, Hazel.'

'Well, I am ready to listen.'

'You remember, I had two subjects to discuss with you. Christmas in the Hollow we have arranged for. Now about Christmas here. My time is disposed of till the day is over. Then I must go to New York. I have a variety of business to attend to. I want furniture for my new coffee room, books for the school, furniture for the new cottages, gifts for New year. I intend to set up a grocery store also. For all these affairs, and for others, I must go to town the day after Christmas. I propose that we go together.'

'Yes, I want to go,' said Wych Hazel. 'I need a week in town, to get ready for the winter here.'

'Perhaps I shall be gone longer than a week,' said Dane, keeping his gravity.

'O wellI can easily find an escort back, if I get through first.'

'But I should not like that,' said Dane looking her in the face with his gray eyes very much alive. 'I want your help in my workI want you with me every minuteI am tired of living without you. Don't you understand?'

'Yes, I understand that,' said the girl. Who should, if she did not!

Dane's lips gave way. 'You do not understand much!' said he. 'Don't you see, Hazel, I am making the audacious proposal that I should carry my wife with me?'

The girl gave a spring away from him which at once put the breadth of the fireplace between her and any such notion.

'You characterize the idea so happily,' she said, 'that I will leave it there. Will you come into the other room, and rest, and be reasonable?' And Hazel disappeared into the hall and blew a ringing blast on her whistle for Dingee and lights. In the little corner room, when Mr. Rollo arrived there, he found a grand fire, and two arm-chairs on extremely opposite sides of the hearthstone, and Dingee and his young mistress intent upon the first efforts of the newly lighted wax candles. The tall white candles, their heavy, old-fashioned silver holders; and the dark red dress, and dark brown hair; and the swarthy cheeks of the little attendant,were all aglow in the firelight. Wych Hazel's face was as far as possible kept out of sight. Dane stood beside the mantelpiece, resting his arm there and looking on; patiently, to outward seeming, so far as any expression of impatience was concerned.

Wych Hazel stood still for a minute after Dingee had gone, then with a slow, grave step went over and placed herself in one of the armchairs.

'Why don't you sit down?' she said. 'It is not good for you to stand.'

'People sit down to rest.'

'Well, as you are tired already, it is the only thing for you to do.'

'I have not gained my cause, and I cannot rest till I do. Bid me rest, Hazel! on that understanding of it.'

'Certainly not,' said Hazel. 'I cannot afford to lose my wits.'

'I am tired of living without you, Wych. Whether you have any sympathy with that feeling I do not ask. I only ask you to consider what regard it fairly deserves.'

'People do not feel apart, unless there is a barrier between,' said Hazel. 'As when you barred me out of Morton Hollow.'

'Inconsistent'said Dane smiling; 'and weakly delusive. Hazel, you must give me a Christmas gift, and you must let it be that thing which of all others I want the most.'

'If you put it to me what you want,' said Wych Hazel, 'I should say, patience, and moderation, and a little practical common sense.'

'You are not the embodiment of those things,' said he daringly, 'and yet I want you.'

'Everything that is worth having, is worth waiting for,' said Hazel composedly. 'You have enough of me now to criticizethat ought to content you.'

'Does it content you?'

Hazel started up, and went to him, just touching each arm with one of her little hands.

'Olaf,'she said, 'will you please to sit downand hush? You know what you promised when I should say that again'

He took her in his arms and kissed her very fondly, and laughed a little; but holding her yet, became serious again.

'I am bound!' he said. 'But the nature of the case obliges me to premise a question or two. Am I not to speak on this subject again till you bid me?'

'No. Yes. That is preposterous. What is your next question?'

'How long must I wait first?'

'Just as long as you can.'

'Till to-morrow, then. Think of it, Hazel.'

Quitting the subject then, Dane went off into talk that would not even remind her of it, unless by some delicate chain of association. He gave her the story of his two months. The sick people had been at the first removed to the end of the valley, in some shanties apart from all the rest; and there he and they had been in quarantine together. There the fearful disease had seized one after another of that little band of poor Germans last-arrived, till ten of them were down with it at once. Everybody fled the spot; would not come near enough even to receive messages; and not for love nor money could help be got for nursing. Only old Gyda; and she and Rollo had had it all to do between them; even to washing the clothes the sick persons wore or had on their beds. Dr. Arthur of course had done all he could, but he had other sick beds to attend to; it was out of the question that he should devote himself solely to those at the end of the Hollow; especially as every visit there made needful a careful disinfecting and purifying process before he could approach anybody else, sick or well. Rollo and Gyda had struggled on together, one watching while the other slept. And so Dane would go from one sick-bed to the next, till he had made the round, and begin again; through it all thinking of what he had left at Chickaree, and of Hazel's pleadings that he had been obliged to disallow, scarce daring to think of the possible joy of going back to her again when the distress should be over. For he could not tell that it would ever be over without first laying himself as low as those whom he tended. The shanties where the sick lay, little better than sheds, had been very good for them but very trying sometimes to the watchers. However, the abundance of fresh air, and the careful quarantine, with a blessing upon the means used, had availed. No outsider had caught the infection, and only two of the sick had died. Those two, Rollo and Arthur had buried, alone and by night.

Softly, slowly, as a man who felt deeply the shadow of fear under which he had been passing and from out of which he had come, Dane told Hazel all this. And as one hears the verification of some fearful dream, so Hazel listened. She had taken her foot-cushion again, and sat with varying colour and averted eyes, and now and then a "yes" of full intelligence. For the scanty details she had received from time to time, had been more than filled out by her imagination; and point by point she seemed to know the story before it was told. By and by one hand came upon the arm of Rollo's chair, and then she leaned her forehead down against that hand, and so sat when the story was finished. Once or twice a quick shiver went over her; otherwise she was quite still.

'I was not unhappy, Wych,' said Dane after a little pause. 'My latent longing for you it is impossible to tell; but I could not let it come to the front then. And there is a walk and a place "with Jesus only," which at the time is joyful, and on looking back to it seems to have wanted nothing.'

Her head stirred a little; presently, she answered,'I did not think you were unhappy. If I had, I believe it would have been a help sometimes.'

'Hey?a help? How?'

'You would not have seemed so far off. And I should not have seemed so much alone.'

'That was a mistake, Hazel.'

'I only said it seemed so. But there was a certain truth in it, too; because happy people never do guess exactly what goes on in the rest of the world.'

'Pray, do the unhappy people?'

But Hazel caught the sound of steps, and started away from her foot-cushion time enough to meet Dr. Arthur midway in the room.

'Rested, Dane?' said the doctor, standing before his late patient.

'That does not sound like a complicated question,' said Dane; 'but it means a good deal. I am ready.'

'What he wants,' said Dr. Arthur, turning gravely to Wych Hazel, 'is a change. If your grace could persuade him to go off for a while, in the right company, he would come back a new man.'

'I shall have a change this week,' said Dane rising. 'Come along, old fellow, or I shall prescribe for you.I shall be here as early as I can, Hazel; before dinner.'

CHAPTER XXI.

THE LOSS OF POWER.

Wych Hazel ordered an early lunch for herself, and a fire in the red room, and fresh flowers for its adornment; and with these last she was busyhumming over them the spell of an old German choralwhen Rollo came in. The air was dainty with fragrance and sweet sounds. He smiled at it, and at Hazel; but after the first greeting was grave again.

'I have got news for you to-day,' he said.

'Have you?' said Hazel, intent on placing a Safrano rose. Then the tone caught her attention and she looked up hastily.

'Not more sickness?'

He shook his head. 'Paul Charteris has stopped work.'

'Is that all?' said Wych Hazel. 'The wonder to me is that such men ever go on.'

'He has not failed. He has stopped work. That is enough, of you knew what it means.'

'Not that all his men are turned adrift?'

'Just that. Three or four hundred families.'

'But they cannot move off and find work in the dead of winter! What is the man thinking of?'

'Only, I suppose, of what are called the exigencies of business. There is not a good market, just now, for his cloths; he would be largely out of pocket presently if he went on paying out, with nothing coming in.'

'Could he do it?'

'I cannot tell.'

She bent thoughtfully over her flowers for a minute, touching them here and there; then looked up again.

'Have the same exigencies come near you?'

He smiled. 'No. I am sound yet.'

'ButI have heard business enough talked, if I could only remember it!does not such a state of things by and by touch all goods and mills and mill-owners?'

'Sometimes. But nothing threatens me at present. Perhaps Charteris is less strong than he has been supposed. Perhaps he has been speculating.'

Hazel finished her flowers with another touch or two, and gathering up the scattered rose leavescrimson and white and buffshowered them gently down upon the hand that rested near her on the table. Then she glanced up with a laugh.