not refuse to wed him when the right time
came. He thought it would be wise to obtain one more brief interview
with her, before proceeding to extremities, and determined to do his
best to draw her aside, when he made his next visit to her house. This
settled, he went to bed again and slept soundly.

When the day to go to Midlands arrived Shirley's courage began to ooze a
little. So much depended upon the attitude of his dear one's mind,
which, for all he knew, had changed since he talked with her, that he
fairly trembled with apprehension. He avoided Mr. Weil, with whom he
usually took the train, and went out early. Alighting at a station a
mile or two away from the right one, he walked through the woods, trying
to think how to act in case matters did not turn out as he hoped. Under
the branches he strolled along, until he came within sight of the roofs
of Midlands; and then he threw himself at the foot of a tree close to
Mr. Fern's grounds, and gave himself up to reverie.

When he laid down here it was only five o'clock, and he was not expected
at the house for a full hour. It pleased him to be so near the one he
loved, and to lie where he could dream of her sweet face and see the
outlines of the house that sheltered her, while she had no knowledge of
his presence. Just over there was the arbor, where he had first had the
supreme bliss of touching her lips with his own. If he could get her to
come there with him again--to-night--when the others were occupied with
their talk of earthly things, and if she would only tell him frankly
that he might go to her father, and that her prayers would go with him!
A soft languor came over his body at the deliciousness of these
reflections, but it was dissipated by the sound of voices which
presently came to him from the other side of the hedge.

"I can't exactly understand, Miss Daisy," said one of the voices, which
he had no difficulty in recognizing as that of Hannibal, "why you wish
me to go away?"

There was an assurance in the tone that Roseleaf did not like. He had
noticed it before in the intercourse of this negro with his employers.
There was something which intimated that he was on the most complete
level with them.

"I want you to go," said Daisy, in her quiet way, "because education is
the only thing that will make you what you ought to be. There are a
hundred chances open to you, in the professions, if you can take a
college course. Unless you do, you can hope for