sought with vigor to
land her safe on Canaan's side, and the singing ceased.

Gerald stood waiting, if perchance there might be another verse, and
wondered, while waiting, at the sounds he heard in the room, easy to
recognize, but difficult to explain. When it seemed certain that the
music was at an end, he, after hesitating for some minutes longer,
gently tapped.

"Oh, come in!" was shouted from inside. "_Entrez_, will you?
_Avanti!_"

He opened the door a little way, discreetly, and put in his head, ready
to draw it back at once should he see his morning call as befalling
inopportunely.

Aurora was so far from expecting him that for a second or two she
actually did not recognize him, and waited to understand what was wanted
of her. Her head was tied in a white cloth, her sleeves were turned
back, she had on an apron, and she held a broom. The furniture was
pushed together out of the corners, some of it covered with sheets; the
windows were open. No mistake possible. Aurora was sweeping.

A burst of laughter rang; the broom-handle knocked on the floor.

"Yes, I'm sweeping," she cried. "Come right in! You find me practising
one of my accomplishments. I can't play the piano, I can't speak
languages, I can't paint bunches of flowers on black velvet; but I can
sweep, I can cook, I can wash dishes--or babies, one just as well as the
other, and I can nurse the sick."

"I am afraid I have come at an inconvenient moment."

"Not at all. I'm glad to see you. I was most through, anyhow."

She had pulled the cloth off her head, and was patting her hair before
the glass. She turned down her cuffs, untied her apron, and came to
shake hands, smiling as usual.

"You caught me," she said. "When I feel a certain way, I've got to work
off steam, and there's nothing that does it like sweeping."

"I beg of you--I beg of you to let me close those windows for you!"

"All right. I'm awfully hot, but I guess the room's cold. We can have a
fire in a minute. Everything's there to make it."

"I beg you will not trouble! I shall only remain a moment and leave you
to finish."

"No, now, no; don't go and leave me. I was only sweeping to be doing
something. To clean the room wasn't my real object. I took their work
from Zaira and Vitale, who are the ones to do it usually, in a way
that's new to me, with damp sawdust. It's nearly finished, anyhow. All
I've got to do is fold the sheets and push things back into their
places."

"Oh,