anted, "to know me by a gown and
bonnet I have had eight years."

"But 'twas _your_ gown and bonnet," said the young man, and Elmira
trembled and took an uneven step, though she strove to walk in a
dignified manner beside Lawrence Prescott on his bay mare. The mare
was a spirited creature, and he had hard work to rein her into a
walk. "Let me take your bundle," he said.

"It is not heavy," said she, but yielded it to him.

Lawrence Prescott was small and slight, but held himself in the
saddle with a stately air. He was physically like his father, but his
mother's smile parted his fine-cut lips, and her expression was in
his blue eyes.

Upham people had not seen much of Lawrence since he was a child, for
he had been away at a preparatory school before entering college, and
many of his vacations had not been spent at home. Now he was come
home to study medicine with his father and prepare to follow in his
footsteps of life. The general opinion was that he would never be as
smart. Many there were, even of those who had come in sore measure
under Doctor Seth Prescott's autocratic thumb, who held in dismay the
prospect of the transference of his sway to his son.

"Guess you'll see how this town will go down when the old doctor's
gone and the young one's here in his place," they said. It is the
people who make tyranny possible.

"How far are you going?" asked Lawrence, of Elmira flitting along
beside his dancing mare.

"Oh, a little way," said she, evasively.

"How far?" There was something of his father's insistence in
Lawrence's voice.

"To Granby," replied Elmira then, and tried to speak on
unconcernedly. She was ashamed to let him know how far she had
planned to walk because of her poverty.

"Granby!" cried Lawrence, with a whistle of astonishment; "why, that
is seven miles farther! You are not going to walk to Granby and back
to day?"

"I like to walk," said Elmira, timidly.

"Why, but it is a warm day, and you are breathing short now."
Lawrence pulled the mare up with a sharp whoa. "Now I'll tell you
what I'll do," he said. "You sit down here on that stone and rest,
and I'll ride back home and put the mare into the chaise, and I'll
drive you over there."

"No, thank you; I'd rather walk," said Elmira, all touched to bliss
by his solicitude, but resolved in her pride of poor maidenhood that
she would not profit by it.

"Let him go back and get the chaise, and have all the town talking
because Lawren