. All was still again.

For some minutes I stood, bewildered, dazed, doubting whether I had been
awake or dreaming. My mind could not grasp what had happened,--even my
imagination could not help me. But one thing I knew: whether this had
all been real, or whether it had been a dream, I had seen the face of
Sylvia. This I knew as I knew I lived.

Slowly I came away, scarcely knowing how I walked or where I emerged
from the woods, and crossed the open country to the house of Captain
Jabe.

XXX.

A DISCOVERY.

I found the quilting party at supper. I could see them through the open
windows of the large living-room, and I heard their chatter and laughing
when I was still a considerable distance from the house. With my mind
quivering with the emotions excited by what had happened in the woods,
it was impossible for me to join a party like this. I walked around the
barn and into a little orchard, where, between two gnarled apple-trees,
there hung an old hammock, into which I threw myself.

There I lay, piling conjecture and supposition high upon each other; but
not at all could I conjecture how it was that the face which I had last
seen in my own home, under the gray bonnet of a sister of Martha, should
flash upon my vision in this far-away spot, and from the surface of a
woodland stream.

It was growing dusky, when I heard a loud whistle, and my name was
called. I whistled in return, and in a few moments Walkirk came running
to me.

"I was beginning to get frightened," he said. "I have been looking
everywhere for you. We have had supper, and the party is breaking up.
There is no moon to-night, and the people must start early for their
homes."

"Let them all get away," I replied; "and when they are entirely out of
sight and hearing let me know, and I'll go in to supper."

"I am afraid," said Walkirk, hesitating, "that they will not like that.
You know these country people are very particular about leave-taking,
and all that sort of thing."

"I can't help it," I answered. "I don't feel at all like seeing people
at present. You can go and bid them good-by in my name."

"As an under-study?" said he, smiling. "Well, if I can tell them you are
out of condition and not feeling like yourself, that will make it all
right, and will also explain why you kept yourself away all the
afternoon." With this he left me, promising to return when the guests
had departed. It was a long time before he came back, and it was