f it, and he read me the story of Ursula and
Kenneth."

"I don't see how you ever had the face," said Felicity; and even Cecily
looked as if she thought the Story Girl had gone rather far.

"Never mind that," cried Felix, "but tell us the story. That's the main
thing."

"I'll tell it just as the Awkward Man read it, as far as I can," said
the Story Girl, "but I can't put all his nice poetical touches in,
because I can't remember them all, though he read it over twice for me."

CHAPTER II. A WILL, A WAY AND A WOMAN

"One day, over a hundred years ago, Ursula Townley was waiting for
Kenneth MacNair in a great beechwood, where brown nuts were falling
and an October wind was making the leaves dance on the ground like
pixy-people."

"What are pixy-people?" demanded Peter, forgetting the Story Girl's
dislike of interruptions.

"Hush," whispered Cecily. "That is only one of the Awkward Man's
poetical touches, I guess."

"There were cultivated fields between the grove and the dark blue gulf;
but far behind and on each side were woods, for Prince Edward Island a
hundred years ago was not what it is today. The settlements were few and
scattered, and the population so scanty that old Hugh Townley boasted
that he knew every man, woman and child in it.

"Old Hugh was quite a noted man in his day. He was noted for
several things--he was rich, he was hospitable, he was proud, he was
masterful--and he had for daughter the handsomest young woman in Prince
Edward Island.

"Of course, the young men were not blind to her good looks, and she had
so many lovers that all the other girls hated her--"

"You bet!" said Dan, aside--

"But the only one who found favour in her eyes was the very last man she
should have pitched her fancy on, at least if old Hugh were the
judge. Kenneth MacNair was a dark-eyed young sea-captain of the next
settlement, and it was to meet him that Ursula stole to the beechwood on
that autumn day of crisp wind and ripe sunshine. Old Hugh had forbidden
his house to the young man, making such a scene of fury about it that
even Ursula's high spirit quailed. Old Hugh had really nothing against
Kenneth himself; but years before either Kenneth or Ursula was born,
Kenneth's father had beaten Hugh Townley in a hotly contested election.
Political feeling ran high in those days, and old Hugh had never
forgiven the MacNair his victory. The feud between the families dated
from that tempest in the provincial