lowed by Isabel saying last fond words to her
mother as the convalescent closed the door.

"Good-night!" she called back.

In one great wave the young man's passion rolled over its bounds and
brought him to his knees with arms outstretched. "Oh, Isabel!" he
murmured. "Oh, my God! Oh, Isabel! Isabel! if I had but lost you
fairly!"

The two slight figures came daintily along the wet path in single file,
the maid throwing the lantern's beams hither and yon as she looked back
to answer Isabel's kindly questions; Isabel one moment half lost in the
gloom of the trees, and then so lighted up again from foot to brow that
it was easy to see the very lines of her winsome mouth, ripe for
compassion or fortitude, yet wishful as a little child's.

Her secret observer moaned as he stood erect. The fury of his soul
seemed to enhance his stature. He did not speak again, but, "Oh, Isabel!
harder to strive against than all the world beside!" was the unuttered
cry that wrote itself upon his tortured brow. "If your unfair winner
would only hold you by fair means! Yet I too was to blame! I too was to
blame, and you alone were blameless!"

Opposite his window Isabel ceased her light talk with the maid, halted,
bent, and scanned something just off the firm path, in the clean wet
sand.

The maid turned and flooded her with the light of the lantern just as
she impulsively lifted an alarmed glance to Leonard's window and as
quickly averted it. "Go on," said the mistress. "I can walk faster if
you can."

The girl quickened her steps, but had not taken a dozen when Isabel
stopped again. "Wait, Minnie. Now you can run back, thank you." She
reached for the lantern.

"I--I thought I was to go all the way, and--and bring the lantern back."

"No, I'll keep the lantern; but I'll stay here and throw the light after
you till you get in. Run along."

Minnie tripped away. As she came where they had first halted, a
purposely belated good-night softly overtook her; and when she looked
back, Isabel, as if by inadvertency, sent the lantern's beam into her
eyes. So too much light sent the maid by the spot unenlightened.

Leonard drew aside lest the beam swing next into his window. But the
precaution was wasted; the glare followed Minnie.

Isabel also followed, slowly, a few paces, and then moved obliquely into
the roadway and toward the window. Only for a moment the ray swept near
her unseen observer, and, lighting up the rain-packed sand close be