t in its rice paper wrappings lest it
should be crushed. He was pleased as a child at the present he had brought
her, and felt strangely shy about giving it to her.

Just then there came a sound from the parlor, sweet and tender and
plaintive. Marcia had conquered her sobs and was singing again with her
whole soul, singing as if she were singing to David. The words drew him
strangely, wonderingly toward the parlor door, yet so softly that he heard
every syllable.

"Dearest, believe,
When e'er we part:
Lonely I grieve,
In my sad heart:--
Thy faithful slave,
Languishing sighs,
Haste then and save--"

Here the words trailed away again into a half sob, and the melody
continued in broken, halting chords that flickered out and faded into the
shadows of the room.

David's heart was pierced with a belief that Aunt Clarinda was right and
something was the matter with Marcia. A great trouble and tenderness, and
almost jealousy, leaped up in his heart which were incomprehensible to
him. Who was Marcia singing this song for? That it was a true cry from a
lonely soul he could but believe. Was she feeling her prison-bars here in
the lonely old house with only a forlorn man whose life and love had been
thrown away upon another? Poor child! Poor child! If he might but save her
from suffering, cover her with his own tenderness and make her content
with that. Would it be possible if he devoted himself to it to make her
forget the one for whom she was sighing; to bring peace and a certain sort
of sweet forgetfulness and interest in other things into her life? He
wanted to make a new life for her, his little girl whom he had so
unthinkingly torn from the home nest and her future, and compelled to take
up his barren way with him. He would make it up to her if such a thing
were possible. Then he opened the door.

In the soft green light of the noonday coming through the shades Marcia's
color did not show as it flew into her cheeks. Her hands grew weak and
dropped upon the keys with a soft little tinkle of surprise and joy. She
sprang up and came a step toward him, then clasped her hands against her
breast and stopped shyly. David coming into the room, questioning,
wondering, anxious, stopped midway too, and for an instant they looked
upon one another. David saw a new look in the girl's face. She seemed
older, mu