moment later, as Darrell sprang into the
saddle; "he doesn't know what to make of it that you haven't bade him
good-by."

Duke, who had shown considerable excitement over the unusual
proceedings, had bounded to Kate's side as Darrell approached her,
expecting his usual recognition; not having received it, he sat
regarding Darrell with an evident sense of personal injury quite
pathetic.

Darrell looked at the drooping head and smiled. "Come, Duke," he said,
slowly starting down the driveway.

Kate bent quickly for a final caress. "Go on, Duke!" she whispered.

Nothing loath to follow Darrell, he bounded forward, but after a few
leaps, on discovering that his beloved mistress was not accompanying
them, he stopped, looking back in great perplexity. At a signal from her
and a word from Darrell he again started onward, but his backward
glances were more than Kate could bear, and she turned to go into the
house.

"What are you sending the dog after him for, anyway?" inquired her
father, himself somewhat puzzled.

"I have given Duke to Mr. Darrell, papa," she replied.

Something in the unnatural calmness of her tone startled him; he turned
to question her. She had gone, but in the glimpse which he had of her
face he read a little of the anguish which at that moment wrung her
young heart, and happening at the same time to catch his sister's eye,
he walked away, silent and uncomfortable.

_Chapter XX_

FORGING THE FETTERS

During the weeks immediately following Darrell's departure the daily
routine of life at The Pines continued in the accustomed channels, but
there was not a member of the family, including Mr. Underwood himself,
to whom it did not seem strangely empty, as though some essential
element were missing.

To Kate her present life, compared with the first months of her return
home, was like the narrow current creeping sluggishly beneath the icy
fetters of winter as compared with the same stream laughing and singing
on its way under summer skies. But she was learning the lesson that all
must learn; that the world sweeps relentlessly onward with no pause for
individual woe, and each must keep step in its ceaseless march, no
matter how weary the brain or how heavy the heart.

Walcott's visits continued with the same frequency, but he was less
annoying in his attentions than formerly. It had gradually dawned upon
him that Kate was no longer a child, but a woman; and a woman with a
will as indomit