demanded
his mother. A hot red of shame and wrath flashed all over her little
face and neck as she spoke, and Jerome, perceiving his mother's
thought, blushed at that, and not at his own.

"I meant that he would have to leave her, and make her miserable in
the end, and that is all I did mean," he said, indignantly. "He can't
marry her, and you know it as well as I. Then there is something
else," he added, as a sudden recollection flashed over his mind: "he
was out riding horseback with Lucina Merritt Monday."

"I don't believe a word of it," his mother said, hotly.

"I saw him."

"Well, what of it if he did? She's the only girl here that rides
horseback, an' I s'pose he wanted company. Mebbe her father asked him
to go with her in case her horse got scared at anything. I shouldn't
be a mite surprised if he had to go and couldn't help himself. He
wouldn't like to refuse if he was asked."

"Mother, you know that Lucina Merritt is the only girl in this town
that Doctor Prescott would think was fit to marry his son, and you
know his family have always had to do just as he said."

"I don't know any such thing," returned his mother; her voice of
dissent had the shrill persistency of a cricket's. "Doctor Prescott
always took a sight of notice of Elmira when she was a little girl
and he used to come here. He never took to you, I know, but he always
did to Elmira."

Jerome said no more. He lighted a candle, took his parcel of new
clothes, and went up-stairs to his chamber.

It was twelve o'clock before Lawrence Prescott went home. Jerome had
not gone to bed; he was waiting to speak to his sister. When he heard
her step on the stairs he opened his door. Elmira, candle in hand,
came slowly up the stair, holding her skirt up lest she trip over it.
When she reached the landing her brother confronted her, and she gave
a little startled cry; then stood, her eyes cast down before him, and
the candle-light shining over the sweet redness and radiance of her
face, which was at that moment nothing but a sign and symbol of
maiden love.

All at once Jerome seemed to grasp the full meaning of it. His own
face deepened and glowed, and looked strangely like his sister's. It
was as if he began to learn involuntarily his own lesson from
another's text-book. Suddenly, instead of his sister's face he seemed
to see Lucina Merritt's. That look of love which levels mankind to
one family was over his memory of her.

"What did you want?" El