the
storm for Grey's Park.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the coming of the guests, Hannah put her
father's room a little more to rights, lighted another candle, put more
wood in the stove, and then sat down to wait the result, with a heart
which it seemed to her had ceased to beat, so pulseless and dead it lay
in her bosom. She had no fear of anything personally adverse to herself
or her father arising from the telling of the secret kept so many years.
It would be safe with Mr. Sanford, while her proud brother would die a
thousand deaths sooner than reveal it; but, oh, how cruelly he would be
hurt, and how he would shrink from the story, and blame her that she
allowed it to be told, especially to the clergyman--and she might
perhaps prevent that yet. So she made another effort, but her father was
determined.

"I must, I must; I shall die easier, and he will never tell. We have
known him so long. Twenty-five years he has been here, and he took to us
from the first. Do you remember how often he used to come and read to
you on the bench under the apple tree?"

"Yes, father," Hannah answered, with a gasp, and he went on:

"Seeing you two together so much, I used to think he had a liking for
you, and you for him. Did you, Hannah? Were you and the minister ever
engaged?"

"No, father, never," Hannah replied, as she pressed her hands tightly
together, while two great burning tears rolled down her cheeks.

"And yet you were a comely enough lass then," her father rejoined, as if
bent on tormenting her. "You had lost your bright color to be sure, but
there was something very winsome in your face and eyes, and manner; and
he might better have married you than the sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued,
fussy Martha Craig, who, like the Martha of old, is troubled about many
things, and leads the minister a stirred up kind of life."

"Mrs. Sanford is a model housekeeper, and takes good care of her
husband," Hannah said, softly; and then, as she heard the sound of
voices outside, she arose quickly, and went to meet her brother, and the
man who, her father had said, would better have married her than the
"sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued Martha."

CHAPTER X.

THE INTERVIEW.

The rector was full of interest and concern as he stepped into the room,
and when Hannah apologized for sending for him on such a night, he
answered promptly:

"Not at all, not at all. If I can be of any comfort to you or your
father, I should be very sorry no