o see the face of her mother, with its look of pathetic
cheerfulness, smiling at her through the small greenish panes. And then
the past in which Oliver had no part, the past which belonged to her and
to her parents, that hallowed, unforgettable past of her childhood,
which seemed bathed in love as in a flood of light--this past enveloped
her as the magic of the moonbeams enveloped the house in which she had
lived. While she stood there, it was more living than the present, more
real than the aching misery in her heart.

The door of the house opened and shut; she heard a step on the gravelled
path; and bending forward out of the shadow, she waited breathlessly for
the sound of her father's voice. But it was a young rector, who had
recently accepted the call to Saint James' Church, and his boyish face,
rising out of the sacred past, awoke her with a shock from the dream
into which she had fallen.

"Good-evening, Mrs. Treadwell. Were you coming to see me?" he asked
eagerly, pleased, she could see, by the idea that she was seeking his
services.

"No, I was passing, and the garden reminded me so of my girlhood that I
came in for a minute."

"It hasn't changed much, I suppose?" His alert, business-like gaze swept
the hillside.

"Hardly at all. One might imagine that those were the same roses I left
here."

"An improvement or two wouldn't hurt it," he remarked with animation.
"These old trees make such a litter in the spring that my wife is
anxious to get them down. Women like tidiness, you know, and she says,
while they are blooming, it is impossible to keep the yard clean."

"I remember. Their flowers cover everything when they fall, but I always
loved them."

"Well, one does get attached to things. I hope you have had a pleasant
summer in spite of the heat. It must have been a delight to have your
daughter at home again. What a splendid worker she is. If we had her in
Dinwiddie for good it wouldn't be long before the old town would awaken.
Why, I'd been trying to get those girls' clubs started for a year, and
she took the job out of my hands and managed it in two weeks."

"The dear child is very clever. Is your wife still in the mountains?"

"She's coming back next week. We didn't feel that it was safe to bring
the baby home until that long spell of heat had broken." Then, as she
turned towards the step, he added hastily, "Won't you let me walk home
with you?"

But this, she felt, was more than she could bear