spoke of Philip constantly, was always watching for his
arrival, greeted him when he came with the utmost enthusiasm, clinging
to him, sitting on the arm of his chair, kissing him, regardless of
onlookers. True, she was quite as demonstrative with her mother, with
James Thorpe, even with Jemima, when permitted; but, as the older girl
said to herself in distaste, she was not going to marry them!

One day, shortly before the wedding, when Jemima arrived at Storm she
was met by her mother at the door with finger upon lip.

"Hush! Jacky is singing again," whispered Kate, delightedly.

It was the first time the girl had been to the piano for weeks.

The two stood and listened. She sang to herself very softly, unconscious
of an audience, one of the Songs of the Hill:

"A little winding road
Goes over the hill to the plain--
A little road that crosses the plain
And comes to the hill again."

Kate realized the difference in Jacqueline's voice since she had heard
it last in that Song of the Hill; clear and expressionless, then, as a
boy's; so throbbing now, so poignant with understanding, that the
mother's eyes filled with tears. Jemima's, too, were a little moist, and
she blinked them hard, and steeled herself to say to Jacqueline that day
what she had come to say.

The child must not slip further into an irrevocable mistake, if she
could help it.

She made an opportunity as soon as possible to get her alone. "Jacky,"
she said abruptly, "are you quite sure you want to marry Philip,--and
that he wants to marry you?"

The girl turned a startled face upon her--"Why, Jemmy, he asked me! Why
would he ask me if he didn't want me?"

"I suspect Philip does many things he does not want to.--Didn't he know
all about--Mr. Channing?" She looked mercifully away from the other's
blanching face, "I wonder if that might have anything to do with his
asking you?"

She waited nervously for a reply. Even the most confident of surgeons
have their moments of suspense.

It came very low, "I never thought of that, Jemmy. Perhaps you are
right.--Oh, if that is so, I just _can't_ be loving enough to him to
make up for his goodness, can I? Darling old Phil!--You see it was
because he did know all about Mr. Channing" (the voice was almost
inaudible now) "that I knew I could marry him. We understand each other,
you see. I'd never expect to be first with him, to take mother's place
with him, any more than he expects to take-