134

XIII A DEAD WATER TRAGEDY 146

XIV SHOOTING THE RAPIDS 157

XV SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 172

XVI DIVERGING ROADS 188

XVII IN THE HOUR OF DARKNESS 201

XVIII THE LETTER 212

XIX A QUESTION OF APPAREL 226

XX COMING AND GOING 241

XXI IN THE GREAT RAILWAY STATION 259

XXII NUMBER 526 272

XXIII FATHER AND SON 283

XXIV A HIDDEN SAFE DEPOSIT 302

XXV THE MELODY AND MYSTERY OF LIFE 319

A Daughter of the Forest

CHAPTER I

THE STORM

"Margot! Margot!"

Mother Angelique's anxious call rang out over the water, once, twice,
many times. But, though she shaded her brows with her hands and
strained her keen ears to listen, there was no one visible and no
response came back to her. So she climbed the hill again and,
reentering the cabin, began to stir with almost vicious energy the
contents of a pot swinging in the wide fireplace. As she toiled she
muttered and wagged her gray head with sage misgivings.

"For my soul! There is the ver' bad hoorican' a-comin', and the child
so heedless. But the signs, the omens! This same day I did fall
asleep at the knitting and waked a-smother. True, 'twas Meroude, the
cat, crouched on my breast; yet what sent her save for a warning?"

Though even in her scolding the woman smiled, recalling how Margot had
jeered at her superstition; and that when she had dropped her bit of
looking-glass the girl had merrily congratulated her on the fact;
since by so doing she had secured "two mirrors in which to behold such
loveliness!"

"No, no, not so. Death lurks in a broken glass; or, at the best, must
follow seven full years of bad luck and sorrow."

On which had come the instant reproof:

"Silly Angelique! When there is no such thing as luck but all is of
the will of God."

The old nurse had frowned. The maid was too wise for her years. She
talked too much with the master. It was not good for womenkind to
listen to grave speech or plague their heads with graver books. Books,
indeed, were for p