dy, quite as usual,
her heart beating fast as she entered and beheld the white face against
the propped-up pillows. After the first gasp of surprise she saw the
unwonted colour flow into the pale cheeks.

"My dear, dear child," he said, as she set down the tray and flew to
clasp him in her arms, "this is--this is almost more than I can grasp.
What has happened Is the sailing of your ship deferred?"

"My sailing on it is deferred," she told him. "I couldn't leave you,
Father Davy; that's the simple truth. Your daughter is an
infant-in-arms."

She did not try to make it clear to him; but let him guess the most of
her reason for returning, and was rewarded by his fervent: "Well, dear,
it was a very wonderful thing for you to do. But you should not have
done it. You should have trusted the good Lord to take care of me, as I
bade you. You must do it yet. We will arrange for you to follow your
Uncle Thomas's party on the next boat. I cannot have you lose so much
just for me."

"It's no use," she asserted, her eyes studying the blue veins so clearly
outlined on the fair forehead. "I've made my decision; I ought to have
made it that way in the beginning. So long as you need me I shall not
leave you."

At the breakfast table she met Mr. Jefferson. It was only twenty-four
hours since she and he had breakfasted together, but somehow it seemed
to Georgiana as if at least a week had gone by. Mr. Warne was seldom
present at the first meal of the day, and it had come to seem very
natural to Georgiana to sit down with her boarder and pour his coffee
and talk with him. This morning, however, there was a curious constraint
in the girl's manner. After the first interchange of observations on
the promise of even more extreme heat than on the preceding day and the
possibilities of dress and diet to suit the trying conditions, the talk
flagged.

"I am strongly tempted," said Mr. Jefferson, as he rose after making an
unusually frugal meal of fruit and coffee, "to let up on work till there
comes a change in the weather. I believe I shall try how it feels to
idle a little. You surely will indorse that, Miss Warne, as far as you
are concerned?"

"No," she said quickly, sure that this plan was the result of
consideration for herself; "as far as I am concerned I should much
prefer to work. I am sure you can give me something to do, even if you
are not working yourself."

"Do you mean that? Then if you do, I shall be with you, though I t