ust about dusk when she heard crying down-stairs,--a child, and
apparently in the kitchen. Mrs. Rayner was with the baby, and Miss
Travers started for the stairs, calling that she would go and see what
it meant. She was down in the hall before Mrs. Rayner's imperative and
repeated calls brought her to a full stop.

"What is it?" she inquired.

"You come back here and hold baby. I know perfectly what it is. It is
Kate Clancy; and she wants me. You can do nothing."

Too late, madame! The intervening doors were opened, and in marched
cook, leading the poor little Irish girl, who was sobbing piteously.
Mrs. Rayner came down the stairs with all speed, bringing her burly son
and heir in her arms. She would have ordered Nell aloft, but what excuse
could she give? and Miss Travers was already bending over the child and
striving to still her heart-breaking cries.

"What is it? Where's your father?" demanded Mrs. Rayner.

"Oh, ma'am, I don't know. I came here to tell the captain. Shure he's
discharged, ma'am, an' his heart's broke entirely, an' mother says we're
all to go with the captain to-morrow, an' he swears he'll kill himself
before he'll go, an' I can't find him, ma'am. It's almost dark now."

"Go back and tell your mother I want her instantly. We'll find your
father. Go!" she repeated, as the child shrank and hesitated.
"Here,--the front way!" And little Kate sped away into the shadows
across the dim level of the parade.

Then the sisters faced each other. There was a fire in the younger's eye
that Mrs. Rayner would have escaped if she could.

"Kate, it is to get Clancy away from the possibility of revealing what
he knows that you have planned this sudden move, and I _know_ it," said
Miss Travers. "You need not answer."

She seized a wrap from the hat-rack and stepped to the door-way. Mrs.
Rayner threw herself after her.

"Nellie, where are you going? What will you do?"

"To Mrs. Waldron's, Kate; if need be, to Mr. Hayne's."

* * * * *

A bright fire was burning in Major Waldron's cosey parlor, where he and
his good wife were seated in earnest talk. It was just after sunset when
Mr. Hayne dropped in to pay his first visit after the few days in which
he had been confined to his quarters. He was looking thin, paler than
usual, and far more restless and eager in manner than of old. The
Waldrons welcomed him with more than usual warmth, and the major
speedily led the conversation