, where Kesiah placed Reuben in a
comfortable chair and hastened to bring him a glass of wine from the
sideboard. At Molly's entrance, Gay and Mr. Chamberlayne came forward to
shake hands with her, while Mrs. Gay looked up from her invalid's couch
and murmured her name in a gentle, reproachful voice. The pale blue
circles around the little lady's eyes and faintly smiling mouth were the
only signs of the blighting experience through which she had passed. As
she turned her angelic gaze on old Jonathan's daughter there was not an
instant's doubt in the minds of those about her that she would accept
the blow with the suffering sweetness that enhanced her beauty.

"We wanted to give you a little reminder of us on your birthday, Molly,"
she said, taking up an amethyst cross on a slender chain from the table
beside her, "and Jonathan thought you would like a trinket to wear with
your white dresses."

"I was right, wasn't I, cousin?" asked Gay, with his genial smile.

Mrs. Gay flushed slightly at the word, while Reuben cast a grateful
glance at him over the untasted glass of wine in his hand.

Without drawing a step nearer, Molly stood there in the centre of the
room, nervously twisting her handkerchief in and out of her fingers.
She was physically cramped by her surroundings, and the reproachful
gentleness in Mrs. Gay's face embarrassed her only less than did the
intimate pleasantry of Jonathan's tone. Every detail of the library--the
richness and heaviness of the furniture, the insipid fixed smiles in the
family portrait, the costly fragility of the china ornaments--all these
seemed to unite in some occult power which overthrew her self-possession
and paralyzed her emotions.

Pitying her shyness, Gay took the chain from his mother's hand, and,
slipping it around Molly's neck, fastened it under the bunch of curls
at the back. Then he patted her encouragingly on the shoulder, while he
spoke directly to Reuben.

"It looks well on her don't you think, Mr. Merryweather," he inquired.

"Yes, it's a pretty gift an' she's much obliged to all of you," replied
Reuben, with the natural dignity which never deserted him. "She's a good
girl, Molly is," he added simply. "For all her quick words an' ways
thar ain't a better girl livin'."

"We are very sure of that," said Mr. Chamberlayne, speaking in Gay's
place. "She is a kinswoman any of us may be proud of owning." And going
a step nearer to her, he began explaining her father's wi