ir voices to whispers, while Dan and
Rachel, somewhat withdrawn from each other, slowly rocked in two old
cane chairs. As Dan returned to his seat after one of his short absences
with the dead, he flung a glance toward the other couple and remarked,
sotto voce.

"Gus is getting lots of cheek since he come to be an architect. There
was a time he darsn't look at Bab."

"He always liked her, though."

"Oh, of course. Who don't? She's pretty and good and gay. But she felt
above Gus, once."

"Did she? I never thought so."

"_He_ thought so. She would hardly notice him."

"Sometimes," said Rachel slowly, "folks feel offish themselves, and
imagine everybody else does. I've heard Freda Wilkes talk about folks
slighting her, when she'd go along the street with her head so high they
couldn't anybody reach up to her. I'm some that way myself, mother says.
But I don't know it till it's over. I get to thinking, and forget what's
around me. It seems to me, often, as if there was a lot more things in
this world--yes, and people too--than we can see around us. I don't
believe in ghosts, either, at least not the scarey kind, but sometimes I
seem to get off this earth into something higher and better. It's then I
forget folks. But it isn't pride. I never feel how little and ignorant I
am as at those times."

Dan rocked on silently and looked at the fire.

He loved to hear Rachel talk. There was a peculiar cadence in her voice,
a rich depth, unusual in young women. There was not a shrill nor common
strain in it. That "high" look Joyce had noted went with high thoughts,
and a voice undertoned by a beautiful soul. Dan felt this without
thinking it out in so many words. Another idea began to force its way
into his moody brain. Just because Rachel had this unusual quality, this
power of looking inward, might she not understand the complexities of
his life better than others? He wondered in his tense silence, but did
not raise his eyes to see.

His silence finally chilled Rachel, and she, too, began to stare at the
fire. The low talk of the other couple ceased and Gus said,
explanatorily,

"We were just speaking of Mr. Dalton and Miss Lavillotte. Bab thinks
that'll be a match."

"She's good enough for a king," said Babette, "and as pretty and grand
as a princess, and he is our king here. Why shouldn't it be all right?"

"She's different from him, though," returned Rachel slowly. "She's been
brought up different, Mr. Dalton has