ress. Mrs. Ray watched them curiously as
together they left the room to see his catch properly stored in the
icebox. Presently, hand in hand, they returned through the hall and went
forth upon the veranda just as the phaeton suddenly drew up at the gate,
and Priscilla felt the little hand withdrawing. He did not know mamma
was coming. He went unwillingly, but obedient, to receive her effusive
words of greeting, and to hear, unresponsive, that he, dear child, was
looking so much better since dear Mrs. Ray had taken charge of him in
all these dreadful days. But she did not ask him to drive with them, nor
did he wish to go, for she had need to speak with Priscilla, and Jimmy
would have been in the way.

It seems that matters had come to such a pass that Mrs. Dwight felt that
she must have advice, and, oh, how her heart yearned for a friend! Many
of the ladies had been kind, yes, very kind, Mrs. Stone especially; and
others, even Mrs. Ray, who she felt, she feared, she _knew_, did not
like or trust her, though she had so longed to win Mrs. Ray's
friendship. But even Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Ray could not be to her now
what she so needed--a real friend and adviser, a confidant, in fact, and
these ladies were, though they did not look it, of an age sufficient to
be her mother. What she craved was one nearer herself in years (Miss
Sanford was certainly ten years older and not easily flattered), for now
a time had come, said Mrs. Dwight, when there might be conflict between
the duty she owed her husband and--and----Priscilla gasped and bridled
and began to bristle all over with premonition of what might be coming,
then breathed a sudden sigh of relief, yet of disappointment, as Mrs.
Dwight concluded with "the deference due her parents." In their letters
both her father and her mother had been appealing to her to appeal to
her husband to come further to their financial aid; that Major Farrell
had relied upon the backing of his son-in-law in certain enterprises;
that he was now in desperate straits, and--and finally they had gone so
far as to threaten--threaten her, their daughter, with untold calamity
if she did not instantly assure them that material aid would speedily be
forthcoming. She had written, telling them of her husband's perilous
plight, of the possibly fatal illness, of the impossibility of anything
being done until his recovery, and their telegrams in acknowledgment
were imperative. She felt that she must bring her burden