It was midnight ere the crowd dispersed and Winn, proud and happy, was
shown to his room. But the next day a reaction came; for when he called
upon Mrs. Moore, as he felt he must, the closed white cottage next door
and the little dooryard, now under snow, where Mona had reared her
flowers, seemed like a tomb. His worthy landlady was overjoyed to see
him, however, and gave an explicit account of the wedding that had
occurred, of Mrs. Hutton's dress, how pretty Mona looked and how happy
all were. She, too, supposed Winn must have heard of it, and marvelled
greatly that the Hutton family could have been in the city now three
months, and Winn not meet them. Where they were stopping, what doing,
and when they were to return, she knew not. So Winn left her, as much in
the dark as ever.

And then, though the snow lay thick on the ledges swept by the ocean's
winds, like a love-lorn swain he must visit Norse Hill and go over to
the gorge to peer into its interior, and the cave, then back to the old
tide mill and to the village. When Sunday came he was really glad to
attend church, and by evening was so disconsolate that he wished for
wings to fly to the mainland. In spite of cordiality, Rockhaven was now
a desolate spot.

And when Tuesday came and he sailed away, the sole passenger over the
misty ocean with Captain Roby, Winn was a wiser and sadder man. When he
reached the city he felt that if he could but find Mona, to kneel at her
feet and beg for her love would be a blessed privilege.

CHAPTER XLIV

ONLY A MOOD

When Winn reached home, he found two messages awaiting him, one from
Ethel Sherman asking him to call, and another bidding him journey to the
home of his boyhood and attend to a business matter at once. His
birthplace, an almost worthless hillside farm, had been leased to
strangers, but they had scarce obtained a living and, finally, having
denuded it of about everything except the stones and the old
weather-beaten farmhouse, had deserted it, leaving three years' taxes
unpaid.

And Winn, the sole heir, was now asked to come and pay them, or allow
his boyhood home to be sold for that purpose.

This, following the bitter disappointment of his Rockhaven trip, seemed
the last straw; and when he called upon Ethel, as perforce he felt he
must, he was in an unenviable frame of mind.

But she was sweetness personified.

"Why, Winn, my dear friend," she said, "what have I done to you that
you should desert