l, and
realizing that there must be no scandal, that could be avoided, for her
sake. He had never seen Burrill, save at a distance, but had heard, as
had every one in W----, of his divorced wife.

Turning to one of the neighbors, he said: "I was passing on my way home
from Mrs. Brown's, when I heard this alarm. I think, good people, that
we had better let this fellow go away quietly, and attend to this woman.
Her face will be badly swollen by and by." Then he turned once more
toward Burrill.

Once more the miscreant was struggling to his feet, and at a command
from Doctor Heath, he hastened his efforts. Hitherto, he had had only a
vision of a pair of flashing dark eyes, and an arm that shot out
swiftly, and straight home.

Now, however, as he gained an erect posture, and turned a threatening
look upon his assailant, the onlookers, who all knew him, and all hated
and feared him, saw a sudden and surprising transformation. The red all
died out of his face, the eyes seemed starting from their sockets, the
lower jaw dropped abjectly and suddenly, and, with a yell of terror,
John Burrill lowered his head and dashed from the house, as if pursued
by a legion of spectres.

CHAPTER XIX.

NANCE BURRILL'S WARNING.

The sudden and surprising exit of Burrill caused, for a moment, a stay
of proceedings, and left the group, so rapidly gathered in Nance
Burrill's kitchen, standing _en tableaux_, for a full minute.

Dr. Heath was the first to recover from his surprise, and as he took in
the absurdity of the scene, he uttered a low laugh, and turned once more
toward the woman, Nance, who seemed to have lost herself in a prolonged
stare.

"Your persecutor does not like my looks, apparently," he said, at the
same time taking from his pocket a small medicine case. "Or was it some
of these good friends that put him to flight?" And he glanced at the
group gathered near the door.

A woman with a child in her arms, and her husband with two more in
charge, at her heels; a family group to the rescue; two or three old
women, of course; and a man with a slouching gait, a shock of unruly red
hair, and a face very much freckled across the cheek bones, and very red
about the nose; the eyes, too, had an uncanny squint, as if nature had
given up her task too soon and left him to survey the world through the
narrow slits. This man had always an air of being profoundly interested
in the smallest affairs of life, perhaps because the sli