stairs.

What, for example, would have been Ellen's feeling had she known that
every morning some one of the Howe sisters came stealing across the fields
to help with the Webster housework? And what would she have said on
discovering that it was her hereditary enemy Martin himself who not only
directed the cultivation of her garden but assumed much of its actual
work.

Ah, Ellen would have writhed in her bed had such tidings been borne to
her. She would, in truth, probably have done far more than writhe had she
been cognizant that every evening this same Mr. Martin Howe, arrayed with
scrupulous care, leaped the historic wall and came to sit on the Webster
doorstep and discuss problems relative to plowing and planting. And if, as
frequently happened, the talk wandered off from cabbages and turnips to
sunsets and moon glades, and if sometimes there were conscious intervals
when there was no talk at all, who was the wiser? Certainly not Ellen, who
in her dim chamber little suspected that the pair who whispered beneath
her window had long since become as oblivious to the fact that they were
Howe and Webster as were Romeo and Juliet that they were Montague and
Capulet.

No, the weeks passed, and Ellen lay in blissful ignorance that the shuttle
of Fate, ever speeding to and fro, was subtly entangling in its delicate
meshes these heirs of an inherited hatred.

Martin's sisters saw the romance and rejoiced; and although she gave no
sign, Melvina Grey must also have seen it.

As for the man and his beloved, they dwelt apart in an ephemeral world
where only the prosaic hours when they were separated were unreal. Their
realities were smiles, sighs, glances,--the thousand and one nothings
that make up the joys and agonies of a lover's existence. Thus the weeks
passed.

In the meanwhile, as a result of rest and good care, Ellen steadily became
stronger and soon reached a point where it was no empty platitude to
assure her that she was really better.

"I do believe we shall have you downstairs yet, Aunt Ellen," said Lucy
gaily. "You are gaining every minute."

"It's time I gained," Ellen retorted with acidity.

"You're gainin' all right," echoed Melvina. "I plan to have you settin' up
soon. Sometime, when you're havin' a good day an' feel real spry, I mean
to hist you into a chair an' let you take a look at the view."

The date for this innovation came sooner than either Lucy or the
optimistic nurse foresaw, for Ellen con