curity in her present and future position. Another
can give me that. And although you may call this a selfish view of our
relations, I believe that you will soon--if you do not, even as you read
this now--feel the justice of it, and thank me for taking it."

With a smile of scorn he tore up the letter, in what he fondly believed
was the bitterness of an outraged trustful nature, forgetting that for
many weeks he had scarcely thought of its writer, and that he himself in
his conduct had already anticipated its truths.

CHAPTER XII.

The master awoke the next morning, albeit after a restless night, with
that clarity of conscience and perception which it is to be feared is
more often the consequence of youth and a perfect circulation than of
any moral conviction or integrity. He argued with himself that as the
only party really aggrieved in the incident of the previous night, the
right of remedy remained with him solely, and under the benign influence
of an early breakfast and the fresh morning air he was inclined to
feel less sternly even towards Seth Davis. In any event, he must first
carefully weigh the evidence against him, and examine the scene of the
outrage closely. For this purpose, he had started for the school-house
fully an hour before his usual time. He was even light-hearted enough to
recognize the humorous aspect of Uncle Ben's appeal to him, and his
own ludicrously paradoxical attitude, and as he at last passed from the
dreary flat into the fringe of upland pines, he was smiling. Well for
him, perhaps, that he was no more affected by any premonition of the
day before him than the lately awakened birds that lightly cut the still
sleeping woods around him in their long flashing sabre-curves of flight.
A yellow-throat, destined to become the breakfast of a lazy hawk still
swinging above the river, was especially moved to such a causeless and
idiotic roulade of mirth that the master listening to the foolish bird
was fain to whistle too. He presently stopped, however, with a slight
embarrassment. For a few paces before him Cressy had unexpectedly
appeared.

She had evidently been watching for him. But not with her usual indolent
confidence. There was a strained look of the muscles of her mouth, as of
some past repression, and a shaded hollow under her temples beneath the
blonde rings of her shorter hair. Her habitually slow, steady eye was
troubled, and she cast a furtive glance around her before she s