so was mine. Aunt Hitty's mother was
married, too."

"Are you sure?" demanded Araminta. "She never told me so. If her
mother was married, why didn't she tell me?"

"I don't know, dear," returned Miss Evelina, truthfully. "Mehitable's
ways are strange." Had she been asked to choose, at the moment,
between Araminta's dense ignorance and all of her own knowledge,
embracing, as it did, a world of pain, she would have chosen gladly,
the fuller life.

The door-bell below rang loudly, defiantly. It was the kind of a ring
which might impel the dead to answer it. Miss Evelina fairly ran
downstairs.

Outside stood Miss Mehitable. Unwillingly, in her wake, had come the
Reverend Austin Thorpe. Under Miss Mehitable's capable and constant
direction, he had made a stretcher out of the clothes poles and a
sheet. He was jaded in spirit beyond all words to express, but he had
come, as Roman captives came, chained to the chariot wheels of the
conqueror.

"Me and the minister," announced Miss Mehitable, imperiously, "have
come to take Minty home!"

XIX

In the Shadow of the Cypress

The house seemed lonely without Araminta. Miss Evelina missed the
child more than she had supposed she could ever miss any one. She had
grown to love her, and, too, she missed the work.

Miss Evelina's house was clean, now, and most of the necessary labour
had been performed by her own frail hands. The care of Araminta had
been an added burden, which she had borne because it had been forced
upon her. Slowly, but surely, she had been compelled to take thought
for others.

The promise of Spring had come to beautiful fulfilment, and the world
was all abloom. Faint mists of May were rising from the earth, and
filmy clouds half veiled the moon. The loneliness of the house was
unbearable, so Miss Evelina went out into the garden, her veil
fluttering, moth-like, about her head.

The old pain was still at her heart, yet, in a way, it was changed.
She had come again into the field of service. Miss Mehitable had been
kind to her, indeed, more than kind. The Piper had made her a garden,
and she had taken care of Araminta. Doctor Ralph, meaning to be wholly
kind, had offered to help her, if he could, and she had been on the
point of doing a small service for him, when Fate, in the person of
Miss Mehitable, intervened. And over and above and beyond all, Anthony
Dexter had come back, to offer her tardy reparation.

That hour was c