hen he entered the silent cabin again he went
naturally to the crooked stairs leading up to the loft. The door was
closed and locked! Mary had, in this final fashion, proclaimed her
independence.

Martin made no effort to force his way or question the proceedings;
with a weary sigh he looked about, then went quietly to an old settle
by the hearth. Taking off his wet and ragged coat he rolled it up and
placed it for a pillow. Finally he stretched his aching body upon the
improvised bed and fell into a restless slumber.

VI

The hot, breathless morning followed the storm through which Sandy
departed, and fell like a moist blanket over Lost Hollow. Even up at
Stoneledge the vapour rose and settled depressingly. Every door and
window in the livable part of the house was set wide to any chance
stirring of the dead air. Ann Walden in the sitting-room, old Lily Ivy
in the kitchen, and the child Cynthia in the dim, shadowy library, in
the unlivable part of the house, were listless and indolent. Presently
the black woman, having completed the preparations of vegetables for
the simple mid-day meal, came to the sitting-room door and contemplated
her mistress with respectful eyes. Ivy was fully seventy years old,
but she was straight and strong as a woman of fifty and as keen and
capable. She had been carefully reared as a house servant in the days
of slavery, and she had followed the downward fortunes of the Waldens
with dignity and courage worthy a more glorious cause. Her spotless
but much patched gown was almost covered by a huge white apron. She
wore a kerchief and a turban-like head covering.

"Miss Ann, honey, a leak done sprung in the roof over the west chamber
las' night. The rain am permeated through the flo' and marked the
ceiling in de libr'y."

Cynthia, lying on the horsehair sofa of the dim room across the hall,
looked up and saw the new and ugly spot over her head.

"Well, Ivy, shut the west chamber off from the rest of the house. We
have far too much space to care for as it is. When I reconstruct
Stoneledge it will be time enough to reopen the disused rooms."

Ivy bowed her head complacently. It had always been the same since the
war. One room after another had been shut off until the wide halls
dividing the house, the living-room, dining-room, kitchen and three
upper bedrooms were all that were left for family use.

"Yes, chile." Then after a pause: "I don' hear how dat wretch, Blac