he can't rightly say no mo'
'kase de bell done ring fer chapel. Dat a heap, but it ain't much fer
waitin' hearts."

"He doesn't say what studies he's taking," Ellen remarked when she had
finished with the sheet.

"We're foolish, Mammy," Hertha exclaimed, seeing the disappointment on
the old woman's face. "It's a dear letter, and it's Tom's
handwriting--I'd know it in Timbuctoo. Oh, how I wish he were here!"

"You sho do, honey; but dere ain't no use in wishin'. Come, git yer
supper an' den we-all'll jes' go down to Uncle Eben, an' Granny Rose an'
de folks as ain't gittin' letters ebery day."

There was no need to go out. The news of the letter reached the
settlement before sundown, and many were the visitors who came to see it
and who departed to tell all and more than it contained. It was really a
gay evening, and when the three women were left alone they sat up a
little longer than usual talking about it.

"Everything all right?" Ellen asked as she kissed her sister good-night.

"Yes," Hertha answered, smiling; but when she was alone in her room the
smile left her lips. Did Ellen suspect anything? Probably not, but how
strange to have a secret from those at home.

CHAPTER VI

Never before did an October boast so many wonderful mornings. Sometimes
it rained in the night, but the rising sun dispersed the clouds and
brought a golden day to Hertha's world. And as she went about her tasks,
her brief playtime over, she still sensed the fragrant orange grove and
moved among the trees, her lover by her side. Deftly helping Miss Patty
with her hair or dress, guiding Miss Witherspoon in her embroidery,
cheering Pomona through an intricate dinner, his voice was in her ears
and his touch upon her cheek. From morning until night was a lovely,
precious, fearsome dream.

For there was reality in the dream that brought fear. Her lover wanted
so much. She was content to stand on the threshold, but each day he
asked that they might enter within the gates. It was hard to resist his
pleading. If for a moment he had been rough, if he had endeavored to
take by force what she hesitated to give, she could have resisted him;
but his gentleness was his power. And each morning as she saw him leave
her to go into the world of white men and women, a world as irrevocably
closed to her as the world of light is closed to the blind, her fear
took form. Would he remain faithful if she failed to give him all that
he desired? If she d