pproaching them for fully five minutes step by step, with the
consciousness that they were looking; she could not stare back at them,
and yet neither could she look all the time at the sand at her
feet--which would be dizzying. Celestine always took care of her dignity
in this way; she had a fixed regard for herself as a decent Vermont
woman; you could see that in the self-respecting way in which her large
neat shoes lifted themselves and came down again when she walked.

"Mrs. Rutherford would like to see you, Mr. Evert, if you please; she
isn't so well, she says."

"Nothing serious, Minerva, I hope?"

"I guess there's no occasion to be scairt, Mr. Evert. But she wants
you."

"I will come immediately."

Celestine disappeared.

Garda and Winthrop turned back towards the house through the orange
aisle.

"Mrs. Rutherford has never known, has she, that we have been engaged?"
asked Garda.

"No."

"There is no need that she should ever know, then; she isn't fond of me
as it is, and she would detest me forever if she knew there had been a
chance of my becoming in reality her niece. I don't want to trouble her
any longer with even my unseen presence; I want to go away."

"Where?"

"It doesn't make much difference where. It is only that I am restless,
and as I have never been restless before, I thought that perhaps if I
should go away for a while, it would stop."

"Yes, you wish to see the world," said Winthrop, vaguely. His mind was
not upon Garda now.

"I don't care for 'the world,'" the girl responded. "_I_ only care for
the people in it."

Then, in answer to a glance of his as his attention came back to her,
"No, I am not going after Lucian," she said; "don't think that. I am
almost sure that Lucian will go abroad now; he was always talking about
it,--saying that he longed to spend a summer in Venice, and paint
everything there. No--but I think I might go to Charleston--the Doctor
could take me; he has a cousin there, Mrs. Lowndes; I could stay with
her. Margaret will oppose it. But the Doctor is my guardian too, you
know; and I hope _you_ will take my part. Of course I should rather go
with Margaret anywhere, if she could only go; but she cannot, you know
Mrs. Rutherford would never let her. So she will feel called
upon--Margaret--to oppose it."

They had now come to the end of the aisle. "Promise me to take my part,"
said Garda. Then, perceiving that his attention had left her again, "See
what I am r