to be free from pretending!
Can't you see?"

Something big and round in his throat hurt him so that he could not
answer at once. He clenched his hands, enraged by the futility of his
pity for her.

"Mrs. Daggett seems a kind soul," she murmured. "She would be my
friend. I am sure of it. But--the others--"

She sighed.

"I used to fancy how they would all come to the station to meet
him--after I had paid everybody, I mean--how they would crowd about
him and take his hand and tell him they were glad it was all over;
then I would bring him home, and he would never even guess it had
stood desolate during all these years. He has forgotten so much
already; but he remembers home--oh, quite perfectly. I went to see
him last week, and he spoke of the gardens and orchards. That is how
I knew how to have things planted: he told me."

He got hastily to his feet: her look, her voice--the useless smart of
it all was swiftly growing unbearable.

"You must wait--I must think!" he said unsteadily. "You ought not to
have told me."

"Do you think I should have told the minister, instead?" she asked
rather piteously. "He has been very kind; but somehow--"

"What! Wesley Elliot?"

His face darkened.

"Thank heaven you did not tell him! I am at least no--"

He checked himself with an effort.

"See here," he said: "You--you mustn't speak to any one of what you
have told me--not for the present, anyway. I want you to promise me."

Her slight figure sagged wearily against the back of her chair. She
was looking up at him like a child spent with an unavailing passion
of grief.

"I have promised that so many times," she murmured: "I have concealed
everything so long--it will be easier for me."

"It will be easier for you," he agreed quickly; "and--perhaps better,
on the whole."

"But they will not know they are being paid--they won't understand--"

"That makes no difference," he decided. "It would make them, perhaps,
less contented to know where the money was coming from. Tell me, does
your servant--this woman you brought from Boston; does she know?"

"You mean Martha? I--I'm not sure. She was a servant in my uncle's
home for years. She wanted to live with me, so I sent for her. I
never spoke to her about--father. She seems devoted to me. I have
thought it would be necessary to tell her--before-- He is coming in
September. Everything will be finished by then."

His eyes were fixed blankly on the hedge; something--a horse'