ttle short
of a run, and which exposed him to the ridicule of such small boys as
observed his haste, in their intervals of punging. One, who dropped from
the runner of a sleigh which came up behind him, jeered him for the
awkwardness with which he floundered out of its way in the deep snow of
the roadside. The sleigh was abruptly halted, and Sue Northwick called
from it, "Mr. Hilary! I couldn't wait at home; and I've just been at the
depot by the lower road. You have a dispatch?"

"Yes, I have a telegram."

"Oh, give it to me!"

He withheld it a moment. "I don't know what it is, Miss Northwick. But
if isn't what you expected, will you let--will you allow me--"

As if she did not know what she was doing, she caught the dispatch from
his hand, and tore it open. "Well," she said, "I knew it. He hasn't been
there; now I shall go to Wellwater." She crumpled the telegram nervously
in her hand, and made a motion to lift the reins.

Matt put his hand on her wrist. "You couldn't. You--you must let me go."

"You?"

"Me. I can get into Boston in time for that half-past-seven train, and I
can do all the things when I get to Wellwater that you couldn't do.
Come; be reasonable! You must see that what I propose is best. I
solemnly promise you that nothing shall be left undone, or omitted or
forgotten, that could set your mind at rest. Whatever you would wish
done, I will do. Go home; your sister needs you; you need yourself; if
you have a trial to meet greater than this suspense, which you've borne
with such courage, you want all your strength for it. I beg you to trust
me to do this for you. I know that it seems recreant to let another go
in your place on such an errand, but it really isn't so. You ought to
know that I wouldn't offer to go if I were not sure that I could do all
that you could do, and more. Come! Let me go for you!"

He poured out his reasons vehemently, and she sat like one without
strength to answer. When he stopped, she still waited before she
answered simply, almost dryly, "Well," and she gave no other sign of
assent in words. But she turned over the hand, on which he was keeping
his, and clutched his hand hard; the tears, the first she had shed that
day, gushed into her eyes. She lifted the reins and drove away, and he
stood in the road gazing after her, till her sleigh vanished over the
rise of ground to the southward.

XIII.

The pale light in which Matt Hilary watched the sleigh out of sigh