but the master is willing, and I
came to know your mind about it."

"I will go," said Eleanor. "Tell Mrs. Amos I will meet her on
board--when?"

"Day after to-morrow morning."

"Very well. I will be there. Will she take the additional lading of my
boxes?"

"O yes; no difficulty about that. It's all right."

"How can I do with the things you have stored for me?" Eleanor said to
Mr. Esthwaite. "Can the schooner take them too?"

"What things?"

"Excuse me--perhaps I misunderstood you. I thought you said you had
half your warehouse, one loft of it, taken up with things for me?"

"Those things are gone, long ago," said Mr. Esthwaite, in a dogged kind
of mood which did not approve of the proposed journey or conveyance.

"Gone?"

"Yes. According to order. Mrs. Caxton wrote, Forward as soon as
possible; so I did."

Again Eleanor's brow and cheeks and her very throat were covered with a
rush of crimson; but when Mr. Amos took her hand on going away its
touch made him ask involuntarily if she were well?

"Perfectly well," Eleanor answered, with something in her manner that
reminded Mr. Amos, though he could not tell why, of the charge Mr.
Esthwaite had brought. Another look into Eleanor's eyes quieted the
thought.

"Your hand is very cold!" he said.

"It's a sign of"--Mr. Esthwaite would have said "fever," but Eleanor
had composedly faced him and he was silent; only busied himself in
shewing Mr. Amos out, without a word that he ought not to have spoken.
Mr. Amos went home and told his wife.

"I think she is all right," he said; "but she does not look to me just
as she did before we landed. I dare say she has had a great deal of
admiration here--"

"I dare say she feels bad," said good Mrs. Amos.

"Why?"

"If you were not a man, you would know," Mrs. Amos said laughing. "She
is in a very trying situation."

"Is she? O, those letters! It is unfortunate, to be sure. But there
must be some explanation."

"The explanation will be good when she gets it," Mrs. Amos remarked. "I
hope somebody who is expecting her is worthy of her. Poor thing! I
couldn't have done it, I believe, even for you."

CHAPTER XVII.

IN SMOOTH WATER.

"But soon I heard the dash of oars,
I heard the pilot's cheer;
My head was turned perforce away,
And I saw a boat appear."

The morning came for the "Queen Esther" to sail. Mr. and Mrs. Amos were
on board first, and watched with eyes both kind and anxious to see