s voice suddenly broke with the suppressed passion of his utterance.
He turned his head away and hid his face on his arm. His whole form
shook. Anne sat looking at him, pale and aghast. She had never
thought of this! And yet--how was it she had never thought of it? It
now seemed a natural and inevitable thing. She wondered at her own
blindness. But--but--things like this did not happen in Four Winds.
Elsewhere in the world human passions might set at defiance human
conventions and laws--but not HERE, surely. Leslie had kept summer
boarders off and on for ten years, and nothing like this had happened.
But perhaps they had not been like Owen Ford; and the vivid, LIVING
Leslie of this summer was not the cold, sullen girl of other years.
Oh, SOMEBODY should have thought of this! Why hadn't Miss Cornelia
thought of it? Miss Cornelia was always ready enough to sound the
alarm where men were concerned. Anne felt an unreasonable resentment
against Miss Cornelia. Then she gave a little inward groan. No matter
who was to blame the mischief was done. And Leslie--what of Leslie?
It was for Leslie Anne felt most concerned.

"Does Leslie know this, Mr. Ford?" she asked quietly.

"No--no,--unless she has guessed it. You surely don't think I'd be cad
and scoundrel enough to tell her, Mrs. Blythe. I couldn't help loving
her--that's all--and my misery is greater than I can bear."

"Does SHE care?" asked Anne. The moment the question crossed her lips
she felt that she should not have asked it. Owen Ford answered it with
overeager protest.

"No--no, of course not. But I could make her care if she were free--I
know I could."

"She does care--and he knows it," thought Anne. Aloud she said,
sympathetically but decidedly:

"But she is not free, Mr. Ford. And the only thing you can do is to go
away in silence and leave her to her own life."

"I know--I know," groaned Owen. He sat down on the grassy bank and
stared moodily into the amber water beneath him. "I know there's
nothing to do--nothing but to say conventionally, 'Good-bye, Mrs.
Moore. Thank you for all your kindness to me this summer,' just as I
would have said it to the sonsy, bustling, keen-eyed housewife I
expected her to be when I came. Then I'll pay my board money like any
honest boarder and go! Oh, it's very simple. No doubt--no
perplexity--a straight road to the end of the world!

"And I'll walk it--you needn't fear that I won't, Mrs. Blythe. B