ht. It seemed to
him that his wish was coming true, and he spoke gently enough and of
the same things they might have talked about the night before, but a
splendid chorus of victory was sounding in his ears; and once, as they
stopped for a moment to look between two of the old warehouses at the
shining river and the masts and rigging of the ship against the
moonlighted sky, he was just ready to speak to the girl at his side.
But he looked at her first and then was silent. There was something in
her face that forbade it,--a whiteness and a strange look in her eyes,
that made him lose all feeling of comradeship or even acquaintance. "I
wonder if the old Highflyer will ever go out again?" she said slowly.
"Captain Parish told me some time ago that he had found her more badly
damaged than he supposed. A vessel like that belongs to the high seas,
and is like a prisoner when it touches shore. I believe that the stray
souls that have no bodies must sometimes make a dwelling in inanimate
things and make us think they are alive. I am always sorry for that
ship"--

"Its guardian angel must have been asleep the night of the collision,"
laughed young Gerry, uneasily; he was displeased with himself the
moment afterward, but Nan laughed too, and felt a sense of reprieve;
and they went on again and said good night quietly on the steps of the
old Prince house. It was very late for Dunport, and the door was shut,
but through the bull's-eyed panes of glass overhead a faint light was
shining, though it could hardly assert itself against the moonlight.
Miss Prince was still down-stairs, and her niece upbraided her, and
then began to give an account of the play, which was cut short by the
mistress of the house; for after one eager, long look at Nan, she
became sleepy and disappointed, and they said good-night; but the girl
felt certain that her aunt was leagued against her, and grew sick at
heart and tired as she climbed the stairs. There was a letter on the
long mahogany table in the hall, and Nan stopped and looked over the
railing at it wearily. Miss Prince stopped too, and said she was sorry
she had forgotten,--it was from Oldfields, and in Dr. Leslie's
writing. But though Nan went back for it, and kissed it more than once
before she went to bed, and even put it under her pillow as a comfort
and defense against she knew not what, for the first time in her life
she was afraid to open it and read the kind words. That night she
watched th