oughtfully. She fancied she saw a change
in his expression, and the blood rushed to her forehead. "I just want to
go to her," she repeated.

He laid his hand on her arm. "My child, your mother is dying. Liff Hyatt
came down to fetch me.... Get in and come with us."

He helped her up to the seat at his side, Liff Hyatt clambered in at
the back, and they drove off toward Hamblin. At first Charity had
hardly grasped what Mr. Miles was saying; the physical relief of finding
herself seated in the buggy, and securely on her road to the Mountain,
effaced the impression of his words. But as her head cleared she
began to understand. She knew the Mountain had but the most infrequent
intercourse with the valleys; she had often enough heard it said that no
one ever went up there except the minister, when someone was dying. And
now it was her mother who was dying... and she would find herself as
much alone on the Mountain as anywhere else in the world. The sense of
unescapable isolation was all she could feel for the moment; then
she began to wonder at the strangeness of its being Mr. Miles who had
undertaken to perform this grim errand. He did not seem in the least
like the kind of man who would care to go up the Mountain. But here he
was at her side, guiding the horse with a firm hand, and bending on her
the kindly gleam of his spectacles, as if there were nothing unusual in
their being together in such circumstances.

For a while she found it impossible to speak, and he seemed to
understand this, and made no attempt to question her. But presently she
felt her tears rise and flow down over her drawn cheeks; and he must
have seen them too, for he laid his hand on hers, and said in a low
voice: "Won't you tell me what is troubling you?"

She shook her head, and he did not insist: but after a while he said, in
the same low tone, so that they should not be overheard: "Charity, what
do you know of your childhood, before you came down to North Dormer?"

She controlled herself, and answered: "Nothing only what I heard Mr.
Royall say one day. He said he brought me down because my father went to
prison."

"And you've never been up there since?"

"Never."

Mr. Miles was silent again, then he said: "I'm glad you're coming with
me now. Perhaps we may find your mother alive, and she may know that you
have come."

They had reached Hamblin, where the snow-flurry had left white patches
in the rough grass on the roadside, and in the ang