all we've suffered--or feared."

"It's full of ghosts," said Anne, with a shiver. "That was why I came
over--I wanted to clasp a human hand and hear a human voice.

"There seem to be so many INHUMAN presences about tonight. Even my own
dear house was full of them. They fairly elbowed me out. So I fled
over here for companionship of my kind."

"You were right not to go in, though, Mistress Blythe. Leslie wouldn't
have liked it. She wouldn't have liked me going in with Dick, as I'd
have done if I hadn't met you. I had Dick down with me all day. I
keep him with me as much as I can to help Leslie a bit."

"Isn't there something odd about his eyes?" asked Anne.

"You noticed that? Yes, one is blue and t'other is hazel--his father
had the same. It's a Moore peculiarity. That was what told me he was
Dick Moore when I saw him first down in Cuby. If it hadn't a-bin for
his eyes I mightn't a-known him, with his beard and fat. You know, I
reckon, that it was me found him and brought him home. Miss Cornelia
always says I shouldn't have done it, but I can't agree with her. It
was the RIGHT thing to do--and so 'twas the only thing. There ain't no
question in my mind about THAT. But my old heart aches for Leslie.
She's only twenty-eight and she's eaten more bread with sorrow than
most women do in eighty years."

They walked on in silence for a little while. Presently Anne said, "Do
you know, Captain Jim, I never like walking with a lantern. I have
always the strangest feeling that just outside the circle of light,
just over its edge in the darkness, I am surrounded by a ring of
furtive, sinister things, watching me from the shadows with hostile
eyes. I've had that feeling from childhood. What is the reason? I
never feel like that when I'm really in the darkness--when it is close
all around me--I'm not the least frightened."

"I've something of that feeling myself," admitted Captain Jim. "I
reckon when the darkness is close to us it is a friend. But when we
sorter push it away from us--divorce ourselves from it, so to speak,
with lantern light--it becomes an enemy. But the fog is lifting.

"There's a smart west wind rising, if you notice. The stars will be
out when you get home."

They were out; and when Anne re-entered her house of dreams the red
embers were still glowing on the hearth, and all the haunting presences
were gone.

CHAPTER 14

NOVEMBER DAYS

The splendor of color which had gl