vivacious talker when she had any thing to
say; but a most dogged holder of her tongue when she had not. In this
instance she had nothing to say, and she did not speak: the doctor had
so much to say that he did not speak, and they sat in silence till the
shrill bell from the farm-house door called them to dinner. As they
walked slowly up to the house, the doctor said:

"You don't wonder that I hate to go away from this lovely place, do you,
Miss Gunn?"

Any other woman but Hetty would have felt something which was in his
tone, though not in his words. But Hetty answered bluntly:

"Yes, I do wonder; it is very lovely here: but I should think you'd want
to be at work; I do. I think we've had play-spell enough; for, after
all, it hasn't been any thing but play-spell for you and me."

"Now she despises me," thought poor Dr. Eben. "She hasn't any tolerance
in her, anyhow," and he was grave and preoccupied all through dinner.

VII.

It was settled that they should set out for home a week from that day.
"Only seven days left," said the doctor. "What can I do in that time?"

Never was man so baffled in attempts to woo. Hetty saw nothing, heard
nothing, understood nothing; unwittingly she defeated every project he
made for seeing her alone; unconsciously she chilled and dampened and
arrested every impulse he had to speak to her, till Dr. Eben's temper
was tried as well as his love. Sally, the baby, the nurse, all three,
were simply a wall of protection around Hetty. Her eyes, her ears, her
hands were full; and as for her heart and soul, they were walled about
even better than her body. Nothing can be such a barrier to love's
approach as an honest nature's honest unconsciousness. Dr. Eben was
wellnigh beside himself. The days flew by. He had done nothing, gained
nothing. How he cursed his folly in having let two whole months slip
away, before he found out that he loved this woman, whom now he could
no more hope to impress in a few hours' time than a late afternoon sun
might think to melt an iceberg.

"It would take a man a lifetime to make her understand that he loved
her," groaned the doctor, "and I've only got two days;" and more than
ever his anxiety deepened as he wondered whether, after they returned
home, she would allow him to continue these friendly and familiar
relations. This uncertainty led to a most unfortunate precipitation on
his part. The night before they were to go, he found Hetty at sunset
sitting