ther
accompanied her to the town, but he will be back to-day."

I was surprised and grieved, and showed it.

"We are all sorry to have her go," said the Sand Lady, "and sorry to see
her wearing that doleful gray garb, which my brother allowed her to
assume this morning."

"I am glad," I exclaimed, "that I did not see her in it!"

The lady looked at me with her pleasant, quiet smile.

"You seem very much interested in her."

"I am," I replied, "very much interested, both directly and indirectly,
and I am exceedingly sorry that she departed without my knowing it."

This time the Sand Lady laughed. "Good-morning, gentlemen," said she.
"Go on with your duel."

XXVII.

A PERSON.

I fenced no more. "Walkirk," I cried, "let us get our traps on board,
and be off!"

My under-study looked troubled,--more troubled than I had ever seen him
before.

"Why do you think of this?" he asked. "Where do you propose to go?"

"Home," said I, "to my own house. That is the place where I want to be."

Walkirk stood still and looked at me, his face still wearing an air of
deep concern.

"It is not my place to advise," he said, "but it seems to me that your
return at this moment would have a very odd appearance, to say the
least. Every one would think that you were pursuing Mother Anastasia,
and she herself would think so."

"No," said I, "she will not suppose anything of the kind. She will know
very well on whose account I came. And as for the people here, they
might labor under a mistake at first, because of course I should not
offer them any explanation, but they would soon learn the real state of
the case; that is, if they correspond with the Mother Superior."

"You propose, then," said Walkirk, "to lay siege to the House of Martha,
and to carry away, if you can, Miss Sylvia Raynor?"

"I have made no plans," I answered, "but I can look after my interests
better in Arden than I can here. I do not like this sudden departure of
the Mother Superior. I very much fear that something has induced her to
withdraw the good will with which she previously seemed to look upon my
attachment to Miss Raynor. Were this not so, she would have advised with
me before she left. Nothing could have been more natural. Now I believe
she has set herself against me, and has gone away with the intention of
permanently separating Sylvia and myself."

"Have you any reason," asked Walkirk, "to impute such an intention to
her?"

"Her sudde