he had been overtaxed
by all that had happened, and going out softly she cautioned the others.
"Do not go in at present; I think he is falling asleep."

"Well, then, I'll jest take this time to run across to Miss Pendleton's
and git some of that yere fine meal; I reckon the captain will like a
cake of it for supper," said Mrs. Redd. "And, Di, you go down to
Dawson's and git a young chicken for briling. No one need say as how the
captain don't have enough to eat yere."

July was left in charge. Anne took her straw hat, passed through the
garden, and into the wood-lot behind, where she strolled to and fro,
looking at the hues of the sunset through the trees, although not in
reality conscious of the colors at all, save as part of the great
boundless joy of the day.

She had been there some time, when a sound roused her; she lifted her
eyes. Was it a ghost approaching?

Weak, holding on by the trees, a shadow of his former self, it was Ward
Heathcote who was coming toward her as well as he could, swerving a
little now and then, and moving unsteadily, yet walking. July had
deserted his post, and the patient, left alone, had risen, dressed
himself unaided, and was coming to find her.

With a cry she went to meet him, and drew him down upon a fallen tree
trunk. "What _can_ you mean?" she said, kneeling down to support him.

"Do not," he answered (and the voice was unlike Heathcote's). "I will
move along so that I can lean against this tree. Come where I can see
you, Anne; I have something to say."

"Let us first go back to the house. Then you can say it."

But he only made a motion of refusal, and, startled by his manner, she
came and stood before him as he desired. He began to speak at once, and
rapidly.

"Anne, I have deceived you. Helen is married; but _I_--am her husband."

She gazed at him. Not a muscle or feature had stirred, yet her whole
face was altered.

"I did not mean to deceive you; there was no plan. It was a wild
temptation that swept over me suddenly when I found that you were
free--not married as I had thought; that you still loved me, and that
you--did not know. I said to myself, let me have the sweetness of her
love for one short day, one short day only, and then I will tell her
all. Yet I might have let it go on for a while longer, Anne, if it had
not been for your own words this afternoon: you would go with me
anywhere, at any time, trusting me utterly, loving me as you only can
love. Your f