XIV--THE LIGHT BEFORE A SHRINE 200

XV--THE INLAID BOX 215

XVI--ONE LITTLE HOUR 230

XVII--THE LAST TRYST 245

XVIII--STARBREAK 260

XIX--IF LOVE WERE ALL 273

XX--"THE LADY TRAVELLER" 288

XXI--THE WEAVING OF THE TAPESTRY 302

XXII--EACH TO HIS OWN WORK 315

XXIII--BETROTHAL 330

XXIV--THE MINISTER'S CALL 345

XXV--A WEDDING 359

Master of the Vineyard

I

The Hill of the Muses

[Sidenote: From the Top of the Hill]

The girl paused among the birches and drew a long breath of relief. It
was good to be outdoors after the countless annoyances of the day; to
feel the earth springing beneath her step, the keen, crisp air bringing
the colour to her cheeks, and the silence of the woods ministering to
her soul.

From the top of the hill she surveyed her little world. Where the small
white houses clustered in the valley, far below her, she had spent her
five-and-twenty years, shut in by the hills, and, more surely, by the
iron bars of circumstance. To her the heights had always meant escape,
for in the upper air and in solitude she found detachment--a sort of
heavenly perspective upon the affairs of the common day.

Down in the bare, brown valley the river lay asleep. Grey patches of
melting snow still filled the crevices along its banks, and fragments of
broken crystal moved slowly toward the ultimate sea. The late afternoon
sun touched the sharp edges, here and there to a faint iridescence.
"The river-god dreams of rainbows," thought Rosemary, with a smile.

[Sidenote: The Valley]

Only one house was near the river; the others were set farther back. The
one upon the shore was the oldest and largest house in the valley,
severely simple in line and with a certain air of stateliness. The
broad, Colonial porch looked out upon the river and the hills beyond it,
while all around, upon the southern slope between the opposite hills and
the valley, were the great vineyards of the Marshs', that had descended
from father to son during the century that had elapsed since the house
was built.

The gnarled and twisted vines scarcely showed now, upon the grey-brown
background of the soil, but in a few places, where the snow had not yet
melted, the tangled black thr