onduct,
and lying awake long after the usual hour for sleep.

But wakeful as she was, there was one who kept the vigils with her,
knowing exactly when she fell away at last into a slumber all the
deeper for the restlessness which had preceded it. Anna slept very
soundly as Adah knew she would, and when toward morning a light footstep
glided across her threshold she did not hear it. The bolt was drawn, the
key was turned, and just as the clock struck three, Adah stood outside
the yard, leaning on the gate and gazing back at the huge building
looming up so dark and grand beneath the starry sky. One more prayer for
Willie and the mother-auntie to whose care she had left him, one more
straining glance at the window of the little room where he lay sleeping,
and she resolutely turned away, nor stopped again until the Danville
depot was reached the station where in less than five minutes after her
arrival the night express stood for an instant, and then went thundering
on, bearing with it another passenger, bound for--she knew not, cared
not whither.

CHAPTER XXXVI

EXCITEMENT

They were not early risers at Terrace Hill, and the morning following
Adah's flight Anna slept later than usual; nor was it until Willie's
baby cry, calling for mamma, was heard, that she awoke, and thinking
Adah had gone down for something, she bade Willie come to her. Putting
out her arms she lifted him carefully into her own bed, and in doing so
brushed from her pillow the letters left for her. But it did not matter
then, and for a full half hour she lay waiting for Adah's return.
Growing impatient at last, she stepped upon the floor, her bare feet
touching something cold, something which made her look down and find
that she was stepping on a letter--not one, but two--and in wondering
surprise she turned them to the light, half fainting with excitement,
when on the back of the first one examined she saw the old familiar
handwriting, and knew that Charlie had written again!

Anna had hardly been human had she waited an instant ere she tore open
the envelope and learned how many times and with how little success
Charlie Millbrook had written to her since his return from India. He had
not forgotten her. The love of his early manhood had increased with his
maturer years, and he could not be satisfied until he heard from her
that he was remembered and still beloved.

This was Charlie's letter, this what Anna read, feeling far too happy to