ion began to disperse, the usual
neighborly greetings took place in the yard.

Friends came up to wish merry Christmas and happy New Year to the Forces,
and to receive the like courtesies from them. Happily, every one had the
good taste to ignore the unseemly events of the previous Tuesday.

And the Force family left the churchyard more at ease than they had
entered it.

The journey home was, therefore, very pleasant.

The subsequent Christmas dinner was a festival, and the dessert was
prolonged with cracking nuts, making "philopena" bargains, opening sugar
kisses and exchanging "verses."

It was not until after dinner that Le got a chance to speak to Odalite.

"Will you come out for a walk with me? It is not cold," he whispered, as
they all left the dining room.

"Yes," she answered; "and we will go now, or it will be too late."

And she took down her brown beaver coat and poke bonnet that always hung
in the hall ready for common use, and began to put them on.

Le took his overcoat and cap from the same rack, and speedily incased
himself. Their gloves were in the pockets of their coats, and so they were
soon ready, and in two minutes opened the hall door and left the house.

It was a fine winter twilight. The sun had just set, and the western
hemisphere was all aflame with the afterglow. The moon had just risen from
behind the deep blue waters of the bay, and was shining broad and full
from a rosy gray sky. Though the woods were bare, and the earth was brown
with winter, the scene was pleasant in its soft, subdued color and veiled
brightness.

CHAPTER XL

AGAIN BY THE WINTRY SEA

"We will walk down by the shore; it is always pleasant there," said Le.

"Yes, let us go there. It will be too dark in the woods, but there will be
moonlight on the sea and shore."

And they walked through the east gate, and down the wooded hill to the
water side.

From an instinct of delicacy, Le turned to the south, which led in an
opposite direction from his own home; but Odalite stopped him.

"Let us walk north, toward Greenbushes. We cannot go so far, because it is
too late, but it will be pleasant to walk in that direction, Le," she
said.

"Will it, now? To you, Odalite?" he asked, surprised and pleased, yet
anxious.

"Very, very pleasant," she answered, brightly.

He turned with her at once, and had courage to ask:

"Will you take my arm, Odalite?"

She took it at once, and, when he held her hand clos