al-fire!

Mrs. Blyth's generous, impulsive nature, and sensitively tempered
affection for her adopted child, impelled her to take instant and not
very merciful notice of Zack's unpardonable thoughtlessness. Her face
flushed, her dark eyes sparkled, as he turned quickly on her couch
towards the fire-place. But, before she could utter a word, Madonna's
hand was on her lips, and Madonna's eyes were fixed with a terrified,
imploring expression on her face. The next instant, the girl's trembling
fingers rapidly signed these words:

"Pray--pray don't say anything! I would not have you speak to him just
now for the world!"

Mrs. Blyth hesitated, and looked towards her husband; but he was away at
the other end of the room, amusing himself professionally by casting
the drapery of the window-curtains hither and thither into all sorts of
picturesque folds. She looked next at Zack. Just at that moment he
was turning his muffin and singing louder than ever. The temptation
to startle him out of his provoking gaiety by a good sharp reproof
was almost too strong to be resisted; but Mrs. Blyth forced herself
to resist it, nevertheless, for Madonna's sake. She did not, however,
communicate with the girl, either by signs or writing, until she had
settled herself again in her former position; then her fingers expressed
these sentences of reply:

"If you promise not to let his thoughtlessness distress you, my love, I
promise not to speak to him about it. Do you agree to that bargain? If
you do, give me a kiss."

Madonna only paused to repress a sigh that was just stealing from her,
before she gave the required pledge. Her cheeks did not recover their
color, nor her lips the smile that had been playing on them earlier in
the evening; but she arranged Mrs. Blyth's pillow even more carefully
than usual, before she left the couch, and went away to perform as
neatly and prettily as ever, her own little household duty of making the
tea.

Zack, entirely unconscious of having given pain to one lady and cause of
anger to another, had got on to his second muffin, and had changed his
accompanying song from "Rule Britannia" to the "Lass o' Gowrie," when
the hollow, ringing sound of rapidly-running wheels penetrated into the
room from the frosty road outside; advancing nearer and nearer, and then
suddenly ceasing opposite Mr. Blyth's own door.

"Dear me!--surely that's at our gate," exclaimed Valentine; "who can
be coming to see us so late, on