g in the old gentlewoman's eyes. Then she kissed
her quite suddenly and impulsively.

"Nan, you must be ill," Miss Fanny Tomlin declared.

"I am, Aunt Fanny; I am not feeling well at all."

"Lie there on the sofa, child," Mrs. Lumsden insisted. Taking Nan by the
arm, she almost forced her to lie down.

"If you-all are talking secrets, I'll go away," said Nan.

"No, child," remarked Mrs. Lumsden; "we are talking about trouble, and
trouble is too common to be much of a secret in this world." She seated
herself on the edge of the sofa, and held Nan's hand, caressing it
softly.

"This is the way I used to cure Gabriel, when he was ill or weary," she
said in a tone too low for the others to hear.

"Did you?" whispered Nan, closing her eyes with a sigh of satisfaction.

"This is the second time I have been able to sit down since breakfast,"
remarked Mrs. Lumsden.

"I have walked miles and miles," replied Nan, wearily.

There was a noise in the hall, and presently Tasma Tid peeped cautiously
into the room. "Wey you done wit Honey Nan?" she asked. "She in dis
house; you ain' kin fool we."

"Come in, and behave yourself if you know how," said Mrs. Lumsden. "Come
in, Tid."

"How come we name Tid? How come we ain't name Tasma Tid?"

No one thought it worth while to make any reply to this, and the African
came into the room, acting as if she were afraid some one would jump at
her. "Sit in the corner there at the foot of the sofa," said Mrs.
Lumsden. Tasma Tid complied very readily with this command, since it
enabled her to be near Nan. The African squatted on the floor, and sat
there motionless.

Meriwether Clopton and Miss Fanny went away after awhile, but Mrs.
Lumsden continued to sit by Nan, caressing her hand. Not a word was said
for a long time, but the silence was finally broken by Nan, who spoke to
the African.

"Tasma Tid, I want you to go home and tell Miss Johnny that I will spend
the rest of the day and the night with Grandmother Lumsden."

"Don't keer; we comin' back," said Tasma Tid.

"Yes, come back," said Mrs. Lumsden; whereupon, the African whisked out
of the room as quick as a flash.

After Tasma Tid had gone, a silence fell on the house--a silence so
profound that Nan could hear the great clock ticking in the front hall,
and the bookshelves cracked just as they do in the middle of the night.

"If I had known what was going to happen when Gabriel came and kissed me
good-bye," said Mrs. Lumsd