Mrs. Drummond noticed this; and the shade of anxiety on her face grew
deeper.

"Archie, you are not quite your old self with Grace; and I am sure she
feels it. What has come between you, my dear?"

"Why, nothing, mother;" and here he attempted a laugh. "Grace and I
never quarrel, as you know."

"I was not speaking of quarrelling," she returned, in a graver voice;
"but you do not seek her out as you used. Before, when you arrived,
you always disappointed me by shutting yourself up in the school-room,
where no one could get at you; and now Grace tells me she has not had
a word with you these four days."

"Has Grace complained of me, then?"

"You know Grace never complains of you. It was not said in any
fault-finding way. We agreed you were not quite yourself, or in your
usual spirits; and I asked her the reason. Tell me, my son, is there
anything troubling you?" Archie sat silent. Mrs. Drummond was so
rarely demonstrative to her children that even this well-beloved son
had never heard before such chords of tenderness in his mother's
voice; and, looking up, he saw that her keen gray eyes were softened
and moist with tears. "You are not quite yourself, Archie,--not quite
happy?" she went on.

Then he took counsel with himself; and after a moment he answered
her:

"No, mother; you are right. I am not--not quite myself nor quite
happy; but I mean to be both presently." And then he looked up in her
face pleadingly, with an expression of entreaty that went to her
heart, and continued: "But my own mother will not pain me by
unnecessary questions that I could not answer." And then she knew that
his will was that she should be silent.

"Very well," she returned, with a sigh. "But you will tell me one
thing, will you not, my dear! Is it--is it quite hopeless?" her
mother's instinct, like that of the Eastern Caliph, immediately
suggesting a woman in the case.

"Quite--quite hopeless!--as dead as this!" bringing down his hand on a
large defunct moth. "Talking will not bring to life, or help a man, to
carry a real burden."

Then, as she kissed him, she knew that his pain had been very great,
but that he meant to bear it with all the strength he could bring.

Grace went up to prepare for her walk that evening with no very
pleasurable anticipations. Her mother had given her Archie's message
in due form, as she sat somewhat sadly by the school-room window,
mending a frock Dottie had just torn.

"Archie wants you to go o