ently that Amy grew impatient and rose.

"Anyway, I must go home. I've been here ever so much later than I meant
to stay. Good-by."

"Wait! How impetuous you--thee is. Well, I've received a great many
invitations to dine, from the banquets of bank presidents down to the
boiled dinners of my own workmen, but I doubt if I ever received one so
honest and so honestly expressed."

"Will thee come, if thee is asked?"

"Yes; I'll come--_if I'm asked_. Don't thee bother to walk all the way
back again, though. If by nine o'clock to-night I have heard nothing to
the contrary, I shall understand that I am expected to dine with my
tenants at 'Spite House.' At what hour, please?"

"On Christmas, dinner is usually at three o'clock. And, if thee pleases,
it is no longer 'Spite' but 'Charity House.' My mother changed all that.
Thee must not dishonor her wishes if thee loves her."

A wonderful, an almost beautiful change passed over the old man's face.

"Amy, thee speaks as if she were here still."

"She is to me. She always will be. Good-by."

She was gone, and the house seemed bigger and emptier after she had left
it. But Archibald Wingate would not have had anybody know with what
almost childish anxiety he waited the striking of the clock, as the hour
of nine drew near. He had been judged a hard and bitter man. He was very
human, after all. The small brown hand of his young cousin was pointing
a new, strange way, wherein he might happily walk, and in secret he
blessed her for it. But he was a man who liked his own will and to
follow his own road still; though he might do his utmost to bend that
road in the direction she had elected. Meanwhile, he would have his
supper sent in and sitting at ease before his own hearth-blaze review
many plans.

So he did, and after the supper a comfortable nap, from which he roused
with a start, fancying the old clock in the hall was striking the hour.

"Eh? What? Is it nine already? That timepiece must be fast."

"It's only me, sir, Marshall, with a bucket of coals. And, if you
please, there's a young person outside insists upon seeing you, sir. Am
I to bid him go away until morning?"

In his disappointment the master's face really paled. Marshall noticed
it and wondered, but he knew enough, sometimes, to hold his tongue. This
seemed to him to be one of the times, and he therefore made no comment,
nor even inquired for the master's health.

"No, don't send anybody away. I fancy that wa