ed the General, impatiently, as
he got out and followed her between the rows of calycanthus bushes that
edged the walk. "What business has he got not to like it after all the
trouble we've been to on his account? It's the very thing for his
health--that's what I said to you, my dear, as soon as I heard of Miss
Mitty's legacy. 'The old Bending place is for sale and will go cheap,' I
said. 'Why not move out into the country and give Ben and the youngster
a chance to breathe fresh air? He's beginning to look seedy and fresh
air will set him up.'"

"But I really don't believe he likes it," rejoined Sally, a little
wistfully, turning, as she reached the columns of the portico, and
looking doubtfully into my face.

"You know I like anything that you like, Sally," I answered in a voice
which, I knew, sounded flat and unenthusiastic, in spite of my effort;
"it's a fine house and there's a good view of the river, I dare say, at
the back."

"I thought it would please you, Ben. It seemed to the General and me the
very best thing we could do with Aunt Mitty's money."

There was a hurt look in her eyes; her mouth trembled as she spoke, and
all the charming mystery had fled from her manner. If we had been alone
I should have opened my arms to her, and have made my confession with
her head on my shoulder; but the square, excited figure of the General,
who kept marching aimlessly up and down between the calycanthus bushes,
put the restraint of a terrible embarrassment upon my words. Tell her I
must, and yet how could I tell her while the little cynical bloodshot
eyes of the great man were upon us?

"Let's go to the back. We can see the river from the terrace," she said,
and there was a touching disappointment in her smile and her voice.

"Yes, we'll go to the back," responded the General, with eagerness.
"Follow this path, Ben, the one that leads round the west wing," and he
added when we had turned the corner of the house, and stopped on the
trim terrace, covered with beds of sweet-william and foxglove, "What do
you think of that for a view now? If those big poplars were out of the
way, you could see clear down to Merrivale, the old Smith place, where I
used to go as a boy."

Meeting the disappointment in Sally's look, I tried to rise valiantly to
the occasion; but it was evident, even while I uttered my empty phrases,
that to all of us, except the General, the mystery had been blighted by
some deadly chill in the very instant