result."

"Yet once----"

She interrupted him with an insane gesture; perhaps he knew her too well
for any attempt at trifling further with her just then, for his manner
changed, and he said:

"You will take cold here; it is growing dark and the wind is very
chill."

"It doesn't matter," she replied, recklessly. "Let us finish what there
is to say, then I will go."

The wretched woman could stand upon her feet no longer, she was shaking
so with agitation and exhaustion that she was forced to sit down on a
fallen log. He seated himself by her side, regardless of her recoiling
gesture, and began to talk earnestly.

For a full hour that strange interview went on, their voices rising at
times in sudden passion, then sinking to a low tone, as if the speakers
remembered that they spoke words which must not be overheard.

At last Elizabeth arose from her seat, folded her cloak about her, and
said, quickly:

"Be here to-morrow at the same hour."

Without giving him time to answer, or making the least sign of farewell,
she darted rapidly through the darkening woods and disappeared in the
direction of the house.

North rose, began whistling a careless air, and walked slowly back along
the path by which he had entered the grove.

When Elizabeth came in sight of the house she saw a light in the library
window.

"Elsie is back at last. God help us all!" she muttered.

She moved near the low casement, looked in and saw the girl standing on
the hearth, and hurried towards the entrance.

Elsie had returned home a full hour before, and had searched for
Elizabeth vainly about the house. She entered the library, and was
walking restlessly about the spacious room, slowly and sadly, as if
oppressed by this cold welcome home.

Suddenly her eye caught sight of a paper lying under the table; it was
one of the letters which had fallen unnoticed by Elizabeth when she put
away the package.

Elsie caught it up, glanced her eyes over it, uttered a faint cry, then
read it in a sort of horrified stupor.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth!" broke from her lips.

The discovery which she had made froze the very blood in her veins, and
left her incapable of thought or action. She sat shivering, as if struck
with a mortal chill, and at last crept close to the fire, clutching the
letter in her hands, but holding them out for warmth. Sometimes her
sister's name broke from her lips in a horrified whisper, and low words
died in her throat, the v