ous work."

"But if you can not wait for time, if you must be relieved at once, can
the will be made to suffice, when the day is dark and one is alone and
not too busy?"

"The will can do much," I insisted. "Dark thoughts can be kept down by
sheer determination. But it is better to fill the mind so full with what
is pleasant that no room is left for gloom. There is so much to enjoy it
must take a real sorrow to disturb a heart resolved to be happy."

"Yes, resolved to be happy. I am resolved to be happy." And she laughed
merrily for a moment. "Nothing else pays. I will not dwell on anything
but the pleasures which surround me." Here she took up her work again.
"I will forget--I will--" She stopped and her eyes left her work to
flash a rapid and involuntary glance over her shoulder. Had she heard
a step? I had not. Or had she felt a draft of which I in my bounding
health was unconscious?

"Are you cold?" I asked, as her glance stole back to mine. "You are
shivering--"

"Oh, no," she answered coldly, almost proudly. "I'm perfectly warm. I
don't feel slight changes. I thought some one was behind me. I felt--Is
Ellen in the adjoining room?"

I jumped up and moved toward the door she indicated. It was slightly
ajar, but Ellen was not behind it.

"There's no one here," said I.

She did not answer. She was bending again over her work, and gave no
indication of speaking again on that or the more serious topic we had
previously been discussing.

Naturally I felt disappointed. I had hoped much from the conversation,
and now these hopes bade fair to fail me. How could I restore matters to
their former basis? Idly I glanced out of the side window I was
passing, and the view of the adjoining house I thus gained acted like
an inspiration. I would test her on a new topic, in the hope of
reintroducing the old. The glimpse I had gained into Mrs. Packard's mind
must not be lost quite as soon as this.

"You asked me a moment ago if I were ever nervous," I began, as I
regained my seat at her side. "I replied, 'Sometimes'; but I might have
said if I had not feared being too abrupt, 'Never till I came into this
house.'"

Her surprise partook more of curiosity than I expected.

"You are nervous here," she repeated. "What is the reason of that, pray?
Has Ellen been chattering to you? I thought she knew enough not to do
that. There's nothing to fear here, Miss Saunders; absolutely nothing
for you to fear. I should not have allow