umway
walked beside her to the gate.

"Have you no answer for me?" he asked, hurriedly.

"Give me a week," she returned, and slipped away from him, taking the
basket from Chillis, and ordering Willie to carry it, while she walked
by the old man's side.

"You have been lookin' at your new house?" he remarked. "You need not
try to hide your secret from me. I see it in your face;" and he looked
long and wistfully upon the rosy record.

"If you see something in _my_ face, I see something in yours. You have a
trouble, a new pain of some kind. Yesterday you looked forty, and
radiant; this evening your face is white and drawn by suffering."

"You do observe the old man's face sometimes, then? That other has not
quite blotted it out? O, my lovely lady! How sweet an' dainty you look,
in that white dress. It does my old eyes good to look at you."

"You are never too ill or sad to make me pretty compliments, Mr.
Chillis. Do you know, I think I have grown quite vain since I have had
you to flatter me. We constitute a mutual admiration society, I'm sure."

Then she led him into the rose-covered porch, and seated him in the
"sleepy-hollow;" brought him a dish of strawberries, and told him to
rest while she got ready his supper.

"Rest!" he answered; "_I'm_ not tired. Willie an' I cooked our own
supper, too. So you jest put Willie to bed--he's tired enough, I
guess--an' then come an' talk to me. That's all I want to-night--is jest
to hear the White Rose talk."

While Mrs. Smiley was occupied with Willie--his wants and his
prattle--her guest sat motionless, his head on his hand, his elbow
resting on the arm of the chair. He had that rare repose of bearing
which is understood to be a sign of high breeding, but in him was
temperament, or a quietude caught from nature and solitude. It gave a
positive charm to his manner, whether animated or depressed; a
dignified, introspective, self-possessed carriage, that suited with his
powerfully built, symmetrical frame, and regular cast of features. Yet,
self-contained as his usual expression was, his face was capable of
vivid illuminations, and striking changes of aspect, under the influence
of feelings either pleasant or painful. In the shadow of the rose-vines,
and the gathering twilight, it would have been impossible to discern, by
any change of feature, what his meditations might be now.

"The moon is full to-night," said Mrs. Smiley, bringing out her low
rocker and placing it near