ter, and though the slate-blue eyes were
as clear and steadfast as before, there was a strained look in them like
that in the eyes of the spent runner. Mountain View Avenue, rurally
alert for something to talk about, decided it was trouble rather than
ill health. Miss Eva Farley corresponded with Jessica Farnsworth, and
there had been European hints of an understanding between Vincent and
Ardea. Coupling this with young Gordon's ostentatious devotion, Nan's
appearance, and Tom's sudden determination to go back to college, there
was the groundwork for a very pretty story which sufficiently accounted
for Miss Dabney's changed looks and for her growing reluctance to be
included in the country colony's social divagations. She was engaged to
one man and in love with another, who was clearly ineligible--this was
the Mountain View Avenue summing-up of the matter; and some condemned
and some pitied, and all were careful not to step within the barrier of
aloofness with which Miss Dabney had of late surrounded herself.

On this Sunday morning of weather portents it chanced to be Ardea's turn
to entertain the young minister, or rather to give him his breakfast
after the service; and she waited for him in the vestibule after the
others had gone. The outer doors were open, and she could see the gray
cloud mass feathering on its under side and creeping lower on the slopes
of Lebanon in every stormy gust of the chill wind.

"It was prudent to bring your overcoat this morning, Mr. Morelock," she
said, when her guest emerged from the vesting-room with his cassock in a
neat bundle under his arm. "If I'd had any idea it would turn cold so
fast, I should have had the carriage come for us."

"Indeed, my dear Miss Dabney, if you could walk to church, I'm sure I
can walk home with you," was the ready response; nevertheless, the
rather fragile-looking young man shuddered a little in sympathy with the
rawness of the wind. He was from well-sheltered New England, and he had
not yet acquired the native Southron's indifference to weather
discomforts; would never acquire them this side of a consumptive's
grave, it was to be feared.

"The attendance was pretty good for such a disagreeable morning, don't
you think?" Ardea ventured, trying to make talk as they breasted the
gusts together on the Deer Trace side of the pike.

The young missioner shook his head rather despondently. "There are
English churchmen among the English and Welsh miners at Gor