isbelief. It was only the winter, after all. She was too young to die
like the tree which had been there for some hundreds of years, She would
be as brave as the bird, and those forces of nature which she had loved
and trusted so long, would comfort her.

She sat there for a quarter of an hour saying her prayers and stilling
the pain in her heart--and then she got up and deliberately went back to
the dining-room, where the family were all assembled now.

They chaffed about everything, and were boisterous and jovial as usual,
and when she asked if she might go and see her old master, should Mrs.
Anderton not wish especially for her company that morning, her
stepfather offered to drive her there in his phaeton on his way to the
city.

"She grows upon one, Lu," he said to his wife, when Halcyone had gone up
to put on her hat. "She is like some quiet, soothing book; she is a kind
of comfort--but she looks confoundedly pale to-day. Take her to the play
to-night, or ask some young fellows in to dinner, to cheer her up."

The drive did Halcyone good, and, to the astonishment of Cheiron who had
also read the news, she walked into his sitting-room with perfect calm.
He himself was raging with indignation and disgust.

But, when he looked into her deep eyes, his astonishment turned to pain,
for the expression in them as they burned from her lifeless face was so
pure, so pitiful and so tragic, that it left him without words for the
moment.

At last he said--when she had greeted him:

"I have been thinking, Halcyone, that I have not had a trip abroad for a
long time, but I am too old now to care about going alone. Do you think
that your aunts and these step-relations of yours would spare you to
accompany me, my dear?"

And Halcyone had to turn away to the window to hide the tears which
suddenly welled up; he was so kind and understanding always--her dear
old master!

"Yes, I am sure they would," she said in a very low voice. "How good of
you. And if we could start at once--that would be nice, would it not? I
suppose they would not let me go without Priscilla, though," she added;
"would that matter?"

"Not at all," said the Professor.

They neither of them mentioned John Derringham's engagement. They talked
long about the possibilities of their foreign journey, and Cheiron felt
himself repaid when he began to observe a look of returning life creep
into her white face.

"I will call and see your stepfather in the city