s as she looked in his
face without a word. She was leaning back in the wooden arm-chair, one
hand lying in her lap, the other hanging limply over the side of the
chair. Her hair, which had been fastened in a coil at the back of her
head, had been loosened in the fall, and now drooped about her head and
face in disorder, which increased her pathetic beauty. And it was at
this point that Max noticed, with astonishment, that her hands, though
not specially beautiful or small or in any way remarkable, were not
those of a woman used to the roughest work.

She made an attempt to rise, apparently doubting his good faith and
afraid to lose sight of him, as he retreated toward the door. But she
fell back again, and only stared at him dumbly.

The mute appeal touched Max to the quick. He was always rather
susceptible, but it seemed to him that he had never felt, at the hands
of any girl, such a variety of emotions as this forlorn creature roused
in him with every movement, every look, every word.

He hesitated, came back a step and leaned over the table, looking at
her.

"I'll come back," said he, in a voice hardly above a whisper. "Of course
I'll come back. You don't think I'd leave you like this, do you?"

For a moment she stared at him with doubt in her eyes; then, as if
reassured, her lips parted in a very faint smile, and she made a slight
motion with her head which he was fain to take as a sign of her trust.

He had reached the door, when by a weak gesture she called him back
again.

"If--if you should meet anybody--I'm expecting Granny all the time--I'm
sure she wouldn't leave me altogether like this--you will come back all
the same, won't you?"

Her earnestness over this matter had given her back a little strength.
She leaned forward over one arm of the chair, impressing her words upon
him with a bend of the head.

"Oh, no, I shan't mind Granny," replied Max, confidently.

"Well, you wouldn't mind her if she was in a good humor," went on the
girl, doubtfully, "but when she's in a bad one, oh, well, then," in a
lowered voice of deep confidence, "_I'm afraid of her myself!_"

"That's all right. It would take more than an old woman to frighten me!
Tell me what she's like and what her name is, and I can present myself
to her as a morning caller."

The girl seemed to have recovered altogether from her attack of
faintness, since she was able to detain him thus from his proposed
errand on her behalf. She smiled a