to make up the difference. He laughed softly as he
kissed her, enjoying her freshness, her surrender, her adoration, which
she no longer attempted to hide.

When he parted from her several hours afterwards, he had almost
recovered the casual gaiety which had become his habit of mind. Life
was too short either to wonder or to regret, he had once remarked, and
a certain easy fatalism had softened so far the pricks of a disturbing
conscience.

The walk from the pasture to the house led through a tangle of shrubbery
called by the negroes, the Haunt's Walk, and as he pushed the leafless
boughs out of his way, a flitting glimpse of red caught his eye beyond
a turn in the path. An instant later, Molly passed him on her way to the
spring or to the meadows beyond.

"Good day, Mr. Jonathan," she said, while her lips curved and she looked
up at him with her arch and brilliant smile.

"Good day to yourself, cousin," he responded gaily, "what is your
hurry?"

As he made a movement to detain her, she slipped past him, and a minute
afterwards her laugh floated back.

"Oh, there's a reason!" she called over her shoulder.

A sudden thought appeared to strike him at her words, and turning
quickly in the path, he looked after her until she disappeared down the
winding path amid the tangle of shrubbery.

"Jove, she is amazingly pretty!" he said at last under his breath.

CHAPTER XVI

THE COMING OF SPRING

The winter began in a long rain and ended in a heavy snow which lay for
a week over the country. In the chill mornings while she dressed, Molly
watched the blue-black shadows of the crows skimming over the white
ground, and there was always a dumb anxiety at her heart as she looked
after them.

On Christmas Eve there had been a dance at Piping Tree, and because she
had danced twice with Gay (who had ridden over in obedience to a whim),
Abel had parted from her in anger. For the first time she had felt
the white heat of his jealousy, and it had aroused rebellion, not
acquiescence, in her heart. Jonathan Gay was nothing to her (though
he called her his cousin)--he had openly shown his preference for
Blossom--but she insisted passionately that she was free and would dance
with whomsoever she pleased. To Abel's demand that she should give up
"round dances" entirely, she had returned a defiant and mocking laugh.
They had parted in an outburst of temper, to rush wildly together a few
days later when they met by chance i