a is."

There were lights in the Squire's house. In spite of the fog, Vaniman
perceived that there was a gray hint of dawn in the heavens. More
acutely was he wondering what this universal vigil in Egypt signified.
But reaction had overtaken him. He was in the mood to accept commands of
any sort. He walked on in silence.

"You must stay out here till I break the thing to Xoa!"

The young man clung to the trellis of the porch for a few moments until
Xoa flung wide the door. Supported in her embrace, he staggered into the
sitting room.

"Cry, sonny! Cry a little," the Squire adjured him. "Put your head on
Xoa's knee and have it out. It will tide you over till your own mother
can comfort you."

But wild desire for knowledge burned the sudden tears out of Vaniman's
eyes. "Where is Vona? What is happening?"

"We'll see to it mighty quick that Vona knows, sonny. The right word
must get to her in the right way. Mother will know how. Mother, you'd
better attend to it."

She agreed with that suggestion, but first she brought a basin and water
and soft cloths and solicitously made more presentable the young man's
face.

While she ministered to him he told them what had been happening in his
affairs.

"You're alive. That's the main point. Now, Xoa," urged the Squire, "go
to Vona before some lunatic tells her something to scare her to death!"

The good woman hastened away, her smile reassuring the lover.

For some time the Squire regarded Vaniman with an expression into which
some of the old notary's whimsical humor began to creep. "So it struck
you, did it, that you had dropped back into town on a lively night? I
was expecting quite a general stir, myself. But I'll confess that the
thing hit me as livelier than what I had looked for when I was sitting
here and heard a man holler outside that your ghost had chased Tasper
Britt into his office. You see, the plan was not to have Tasper
disturbed by any human beings this night. We all hoped he would sleep
sound. Everybody proposed to tiptoe when passing in the neighborhood of
the Harnden house. But to have a ghost come and chase Tasper around town
was wholly outside the calculations of the human beings in Egypt this
night."

"I'm afraid I don't see any joke hidden in this proposition, Squire,"
the young man complained.

"Son, it's a joke, but it's so big and ironic that only one of those
gods on high Olympus is big enough and broad-minded enough to be able to
laugh a