s
me tremble and hold my own weak complainings in check. He has been up
to his house to-day, and when he came back there was not a blind from
one end of the street to the other but quivered when he went by, so
curious are the women to see him who they cannot but feel has merited
all the sympathy if not the homage of their sex. Ralph Urphistone
tells me to-night that the workmen at the new house have been offered
extra wages if they put the house into habitable condition by the end
of the month.

* * * * *

For all his secret satisfaction Orrin is very restless. He has tried
to induce Juliet to marry him at once, and go with him to the little
cottage he has raised for her comfort. But she puts him off with
excuses, which, however, are so mingled with sweet coquetries and
caresses, that he cannot reproach her without seeming insensible to
her affection, and it is not until he is away from the fascination of
her presence, and amongst those who do not hesitate to say that he
will yet see the advantage of putting his brilliant bird in a cage
suitable to her plumage, that he remembers his manhood and chafes at
his inability to assert it. I am sorry for him in a way, but not so
deeply as I might be if _he_ were more humble and more truly sensible
of the mischief he has wrought.

* * * * *

Orrin will yet make himself debtor to the Colonel. Something has
happened which proves that fate--or man--is working against him to
this end, and that he must from the very force of circumstances
finally succumb. I say _man_, but do I not mean _woman_? Ah, no, no,
no! my pen ran away with me, my thoughts played me false. It could
have been no woman, for if it was, then is Juliet a--Let me keep to
facts. I have not self-control enough for speculation.

To-day the sun set red. As we had been having gray skies, and more or
less rain for a fortnight, the brightness and vivid crimson in the
west drew many people to their doors. I was amongst them, and as I
stood looking intently at the sky that was now one blaze of glory
from horizon to zenith, Orrin stepped up behind me and said:

"Do you want to take a ride to-night?"

Seeing him look more restless and moody than ever, I answered "Yes,"
and accordingly about eight that night he rode up to my door and we
started forth.

I thought he would turn in the direction of the stone house, for one
night when I had allowed myself to g