ghts and
gaiety of the hall, the supper-room and the veranda, and the romantic,
love-sick peace of moonlit lawns and gardens. Altogether she was in a
most complicated, distracted, uncertain and unhappy frame of mind.

Then a latch clicked softly, the hinges of a shutter whined, and the
startled young woman found herself staring up into the face of Mrs.
Gosnold--a pallid oval against the dark background of an
unlighted window not two feet above Sally's head.

She gasped, but respected the admonition of a finger pressed lightly
upon the lady's smiling lips.

"S-s-s-sh!" said Mrs. Gosnold mysteriously, with cautious glances
right and left.

"There's no one here," Sally assured her in tones appropriately
guarded. "You've been listening--" Mrs. Gosnold nodded with a
mischievous twinkle: "I have that!"

"You heard--?"

"Something--not much--not enough. If you had only been a few minutes
later. . ."

"I'm sorry, but I've been looking for you everywhere. Please, may I
come in and tell you something?"

"Not now."

"It's very important--something you ought to know at once."

"Oh, my dear!" the woman sighed with genuine regret: "I know already
far more than I care to know!"

"But this--"

"Not now, I say. I've been too frequently and too long away from my
guests as it is. I'll have to show myself for a little while. Then,
come to my room in half an hour."

"At half past twelve?"

"Yes, and don't be late. Now do run along and have a good time."

The shutter was drawn gently to, and Sally, with an embittered smile
for the unconscious irony of that parting injunction, moved slowly on
toward the front of the house.

But it was true that she felt a little less disconsolate now than she
had two minutes ago; after all, it seemed, she wasn't altogether
friendless and forsaken; and as for those doubts and questions which
so perplexed her, they would all be resolved and answered once she had
opportunity to lay them, together with the story of last night, before
the judgment of her benefactress. . . .

Still, if she reckoned confidently upon her hostess, she reckoned not
wisely without her host, whose mask to-night was that of a sardonic
destiny. And when a tentative venture into the throngs on the veranda
had been discouraged by the spirited advances of a forward young
Cavalier who chose to consider his honour piqued, first by her demure
Quaker garb, then by her unresponsiveness, Sally was glad enough to
fall back u