you
mustn't see Grace again. She ain't yours. She belongs to some one else."

"Some one else!" He repeated the words in a whisper. "Some one ELSE?
Why, Mrs. Coffin, you must be crazy! If you expect me to--"

"Hush! hush! I ain't crazy, though there's times when I wonder I ain't.
John, you and Grace have known each other for a few months, that's
all. You've been attracted to her because she was pretty and educated
and--and sweet; and she's liked you because you were about the only
young person who could understand her and--and all that. And so you've
been meetin' and have come to believe--you have, anyway--that 'twas
somethin' more than likin'. But you neither of you have stopped to think
that a marriage between you two was as impossible as anything could be.
And, besides, there's another man. A man she's known all her life and
loved and respected--"

"Stop, Mrs. Coffin! stop this wicked nonsense. I won't hear it."

"John, Grace Van Horne is goin' to marry Cap'n Nat Hammond. There!
that's the livin' truth."

In his absolute confidence and faith he had again started for the door.
Now he wheeled and stared at her. She nodded solemnly.

"It's the truth," she repeated. "She and Nat are promised to each other.
Cap'n Eben, on his deathbed, asked Dr. Parker and me to be witnesses to
the engagement. Now you see why you mustn't go nigh her again."

He did not answer. Instead, he stood silently staring. She stepped
forward and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Set down, John," she said. "Set down and let me tell you about it. Yes,
yes, you must. If I tell you, you'll understand better. There! there!
don't you interrupt me yet and don't you look that way. Do set down."

She led him over to the rocking-chair and gently forced him into it.
He obeyed, although with no apparent realization of what he was doing.
Still with her hand on his shoulder she went on speaking. She told him
of her visit to the Hammond tavern, saying nothing of Mr. Pepper's
call nor of her own experience in the grove. She told of Captain Eben's
seizure, of what the doctor said, and of the old Come-Outer's return to
consciousness. Then she described the scene in the sick room and how Nat
and Grace had plighted troth. He listened, at first stunned and stolid,
then with growing impatience.

"So you see," she said. "It's settled; they're engaged, and Dr. Parker
will tell everybody of the engagement this very mornin'. It wa'n't any
great surprise to me. Those