. Then the girl came
to the front of the stage, bowed, and lifting the violin she played her
conception of an invitation to dance. Every living soul within sound of
her notes strained their nerves to sit still and let only their hearts
dance with her. When that began the woman ran toward the country. She
never stopped until the carriage overtook her half-way to her cabin. She
said she had grown tired of sitting, and walked on ahead. That night
she asked Billy to remain with her and sleep on Elnora's bed. Then she
pitched headlong upon her own, and suffered agony of soul such as she
never before had known. The swamp had sent back the soul of her loved
dead and put it into the body of the daughter she resented, and it was
almost more than she could endure and live.

CHAPTER XI

WHEREIN ELNORA GRADUATES, AND FRECKLES AND THE ANGEL SEND GIFTS

That was Friday night. Elnora came home Saturday morning and began work.
Mrs. Comstock asked no questions, and the girl only told her that
the audience had been large enough to more than pay for the piece of
statuary the class had selected for the hall. Then she inquired about
her dresses and was told they would be ready for her. She had been
invited to go to the Bird Woman's to prepare for both the sermon and
Commencement exercises. Since there was so much practising to do, it had
been arranged that she should remain there from the night of the sermon
until after she was graduated. If Mrs. Comstock decided to attend she
was to drive in with the Sintons. When Elnora begged her to come she
said she cared nothing about such silliness.

It was almost time for Wesley to come to take Elnora to the city, when
fresh from her bath, and dressed to her outer garment, she stood with
expectant face before her mother and cried: "Now my dress, mother!"

Mrs. Comstock was pale as she replied: "It's on my bed. Help yourself."

Elnora opened the door and stepped into her mother's room with never a
misgiving. Since the night Margaret and Wesley had brought her clothing,
when she first started to school, her mother had selected all of her
dresses, with Mrs. Sinton's help made most of them, and Elnora had paid
the bills. The white dress of the previous spring was the first made at
a dressmaker's. She had worn that as junior usher at Commencement; but
her mother had selected the material, had it made, and it had fitted
perfectly and had been suitable in every way. So with her heart at rest