er and grumble. Dolly rose to wrap her shawl around her, and as
she sat down again in an instant her doubts were resolved, and she had
seen that for which she had waited.

Her window faced the inner yard, and was some eight feet from the
ground. A man standing beneath it could not be seen from above. But she
saw enough to tell her all that she wished to know. Silently, suddenly,
a hand had appeared from below, had laid a sprig of flower upon her
ledge, and had disappeared. It did not take two seconds; she saw no
face, she heard no sound, but she had seen the hand and she wanted
nothing more. With a smile she threw herself upon the bed, drew a rug
over her, and dropped into a heavy slumber.

She was awakened by her mother plucking at her shoulder.

"It's breakfast time, Dolly, but I thought you would be weary, so I
brought you lip some bread and coffee. Sit up, like a dearie, and take
it."

"All right, mother. Thank you. I'm all dressed, so I'll be ready to come
down soon."

"Bless the gal, she's never had her things off! And, dearie me, here's
the flower outside the window, sure enough! Well, and did you see who
put it there?"

"Yes, I did."

"Who was it then?"

"It was Adam."

"Was it now? Well, I shouldn't have thought that he had it in him. Then
Adam it's to be. Well, he's steady, and that's better than being clever,
yea, seven-and-seventy fold. Did he come across the yard?"

"No, along by the wall."

"How did you see him then?"

"I didn't see him."

"Then how can you tell?"

"I saw his hand."

"But d'you tell me you know Adam's hand?"

"It would be a blind man that couldn't tell it from Elias' hand. Why,
the one is as brown as that coffee, and the other as white as the cup,
with great blue veins all over it."

"Well, now I shouldn't have thought of it, but so it is. Well, it'll be
a busy day, Dolly. Just hark to the wind!"

It had, indeed, increased during the few hours since dawn to a very
violent tempest. The panes of the window rattled and shook. Glancing
out, Dolly saw cabbage leaves and straw whirling up past the casement.

"The great hayrick is giving. They're all out trying to prop it up. My,
but it do blow!"

It did indeed! When Dolly came downstairs it was all that she could do
to push her way through the porch. All along the horizon the sky was
brassy-yellow, but above the wind screamed and stormed, and the torn,
hurrying clouds were now huddled together, and now frayed off into