left it at an aposiopesis, a form of speech
she was fond of.

There was a grain of truth, Maggie thought, in the old lady's hints,
and she helped herself in silence to marmalade. Laurie's letters,
which she usually read, did not refer much to religion, or to the
Brompton Oratory, as his custom had been at first. She tried to make
up her mind that this was a healthy sign; that it showed that Laurie
was settling down from that slight feverishness of zeal that seemed
the inevitable atmosphere of most converts. Maggie found converts a
little trying now and then; they would talk so much about facts,
certainly undisputed, and for that very reason not to be talked
about. Laurie had been a marked case, she remembered; he wouldn't let
the thing alone, and his contempt of Anglican clergy, whom Maggie
herself regarded with respect, was hard to understand. In fact she had
remonstrated on the subject of the Vicar....

Maggie perceived that she was letting her thoughts run again on
disputable lines; and she made a remark about the Balkan crisis so
abruptly that Mrs. Baxter looked at her in bewilderment.

"You do jump about so, my dear. We were speaking of Laurie, were we
not?"

"Yes," said Maggie.

"It's the twentieth he's coming on, is it not?"

"Yes," said Maggie.

"I wonder what train he'll come by?"

"I don't know," said Maggie.

* * * * *

A few days before Laurie's arrival she went to the greenhouse to see
the chrysanthemums. There was an excellent show of them.

"Mrs. Baxter doesn't like them hairy ones," said the gardener.

"Oh! I had forgotten. Well, Ferris, on the nineteenth I shall want a
big bunch of them. You'd better take those--those hairy ones. And some
maidenhair. Is there plenty?"

"Yes, miss."

"Can you make a wreath, Ferris?"

"Yes, miss."

"Well, will you make a good wreath of them, please, for a grave? The
morning of the twentieth will do. There'll be plenty left for the
church and house?"

"Oh yes, miss."

"And for Father Mahon?"

"Oh yes, miss."

"Very well, then. Will you remember that? A good wreath, with fern, on
the morning of the twentieth. If you'll just leave it here I'll call
for it about twelve o'clock. You needn't send it up to the house."

_Chapter VI_

I

Laurie was sitting in his room after breakfast, filling his briar pipe
thoughtfully, and contemplating his journey to Stantons.

It was more than six weeks now since his ex