Year: 1866

and there they were to take carriage
and go to meet the train. The first
practicable moment they were to be
married, and after that their bliss was
to have no end.
And as for the blacksmith, ;" sneered
Noreland, "he can have Peggy, you
know, so you need not fret about him,
Efie."


For all that, Effie's conscience smote
her when Merrick was kinder than
usual, and so full of joy, as the time was
now near at hand when she was to be
his wife, as they sat together on the
porch on that Sunday, and when Mon
day came she broke china and made
more blunders generally than had ever
been laid to her charge in years before.
Tea was on the table and Mrs. Mas
ters busy with some dish she prided
herself upon, and the sound of Merrick's
| whistle grew louder every instant as he
tripped homeward from the forge, when
she slipped up to her room, and put
ting on her things, slipped down the
back stairway, and away toward the
village.
If Mrs. Masters missed her, she
knew that she would be only too glad
to have her son to herself for little
while, and there was no probability of
Merrick's following her.


But it was hard to choke the tears
down as she plodded through the long
green-for the snow had gone long ago,
and twas Summer nOw-and she only
made herself brave by the thought that
Noreland would die if she did not keep
her promise.


81 couldn't break his heart" she
said to herself, "even if L could bear
to marry another"


She reached the milliner's shop at
last, and went to talk to one of the girls.
The plan was that when Noreland was
ready he was to show himself at the
door for a moment, and she was to go
out to meet him and say "gOod-by,"
just as if she was going home.


Effie sat with one eye on the glass
door which opened from the work room
to the shop, while she tried to chat
carclessly; in few moments she saw
man enter from the street-not More
land, but of all the people in the world,
Merrick Masters. Her first thought
was that he had followed her, but in an
instant she saw that he had business of
his own. He spoke some words to the
mistress of the shop, and she brought a
bandboX.


| OF course the bonnet was a surprise
for her, and it smote her to the heart to
remember that she should be miles away
before her birthday dawned. Poor
Merrick! would he feel badly? and il
was cruel of her.


AS she thought thus, the door opened
again, letting Merrick out with two
bundles in his hand, and two ladies in
from the hotel, whom she had often
seen riding with Noreland. They asked
for ribbons, and went on with their
talk while examining them.


"Who was that person standing be-
fore the door ?'


| ooh, Noreland."


~ thought so. How oddly he behav-
ed. He didn't seem to want us to see
him."


Perhaps he didn't, he has his secrets,
1 expect. One of them is that Irritation
with the blacksmith's girl"
Shocking Some one ought to write
to Mrs. Noreland."


"Poor thing, she is used to it. You
know she's quite middle aged and plain,
and he married her for her money.
Actually, my dear, he ran away with a
girl last Summer. The brother tried to
shoot him, and she drowned herself. 1t
was shocking scrape. If 1 had such
husband as Noreland, I'd have u di-
vorce.n


$50 wouldI. I hope it won't come to
that with the blacksmith's girl, she's u
very pretty creature"


"Mrs. Print, I'll take four yards of
the blue"


The ribbon was cut off, and the ladies
took their departure.


Eflie was thunderstruck. They had
been talking of Noreland. He was
married already, and so could never
mean to marry her. What did he mean
then. And as she asked herself the
question, the truth flashed over her
mind, and she saw the pit of shame and
| dishOnor at her feet.


Love her! oh no, no, thought Etlie.
1t is hate, not love, or he would not
wish to wrong me so. Then as she
shrank from tho memory of his false
words and falser smiles, the honest face
of the blacksmith rose before her, and
in truth and tenderness it grew plain to
her, and she was saved.


She left the girl with whom she had
been chatting, abruptly, and ran out of
the store. All she prayed was not to
meet Noreland, and fear lent wings to
her feet. She turned her face toward
the forge, and had reached the cross
road when wagon stood across her
path-Merrick's wagon-and he was
hard by chatting to a farmer over gate.
She heard his voice, and saw the dusky
outline of his form, but she dared not
speak to him yet. She clambered up
into the wagon and hid there, crying
softly. The handbook he had been to get
was there ON the seat, and she kissed it
as she crouched behind it, thinking Of
his kindness.


Then peeping out she saw some one