Year: 1870

but that did not make it any easier.
= Faith looked at her as she sat ther'


on her white horse, outlined agaiDs


the sky, with her dark blue drapeT3
falling in graceful folds. She was no
so far off but that it was easy to set
! how s'her wavy hair, so wondrous fair
was with the sunset glowing; and how


white We're the little ungloYed hand:
, that were fastening back some stray
tresses that had become loosened by
the rapid motion.


. Poor Faith there is such differ
ence in peOpIe,n she sighed, as tht


riders passed out of sight. Now nay


dresses will never fall Ike that, every


fold in the right place. If my hail


comes down It will not waive and
twist and coil itself until its disorder Is


prettier and more picturesque than
another's painstaking. And just look
at my hands -


The sun went down, and the gray


twilight erept over the earth. Janet
came sfeepily upstairs, holding dolly


clasped to her heart, bottom upward,
and scattering sawdust all the way.


Faith undrassed her, and in two min


utes she was in the land of Nod, to


which place Tom had already betaken


himself.


Faith was free now, for the baby was
already asleep, and Mrs. Harris was
reading the last magazine, undiSturbed
/ by nerves or headaches. But she had
lost the desire for walk. She wanted
to think.


1t was all over between her and
! Kenneth MarstOn. Of course it was.
/ Or rather it had never been begun.
Only she had thOught-she had hoped
she had been sure


But she did not blame him. Oh no /!
! Why should she? Shall a man stOOp
| to pick up pebble when a diamond
/ has fallen in his way? Shall he prick
/ his fingers in attempting to pluck q
! wild sWeet-brier when there is a moss
rose, dewy and fragrant, blooming at
at his feet?


All, Faith Men have preferred
! sweet-briers to moss-roses. But you
have not learned that yet.


SFe had always known she was not
good enough for him. She had always
wondered why he sought her cOmpan-
ionship. He was SO much wiser than
she--he knew so much more of books
and of the world. He had been-Why,
7 every where and she had never been
Z farther than Burlington in all her life.
When she came home from her
one scar at Mrs. WOrcesteT'S school,
which was all her father could afford,
I
were her French books on the little
shelf and her Botany, and Ancient
History, and Literature, and she meant
to have gone on with them. She had
come home with all girls eager am
bition-her desire to do and to be. But
she had washed dishes, ald tended ba-
by, and skinned the milk, and put
Tommy to bed, and darned stockings,
and hemmed ruff1ing for Janet's aprons;
and the Fren ch books were unopened,
and she was forgetting who built st.
Pauls and in what year Shakespeare
died. That was the end of it. Her
time was all fritted away, and there
was nothing to show for it.


Vet she had thought-she had really
thought sometimes that Kenneth
MarstOn loved her; and she had
dreamed-she was ashamed of 1t now,
but she acknowledged it bTavely as she
cOmmuned with her own heart, sitting
there with her head buried in her arms
she had dreamed of beautiful home
with him, where her innocent tastes
and fancies might find free indulgence,
and where a gentle, guiding hand
would lead her in the fiOWery paths she
loved. And now the dream was over.
She had awakened the first time she
saw him and Judith Grant together,
and she should never dream again.


If she'could only go away somewhere
and do something teach, or make
bOnnets, or go into q shop, or keep
books, she did not care what-anything
that would take her out of herself, and
open a new life for her. But there " as
no escape. She must just stay there
and listen to her mothers complaints,
and tell stories to Tommy, and mend
Janet's doll, and grow old and hOmely,
and fretful, maybe! That was the
worst of it. To feel that she was grow
ing down rather than up. Dwarfing
herself when she had so lOnged to grow
to the full stature Of q perfect woman
hood.


She stopped thinking for moment
and listened. There was-a strange pre-
ternaturaI hush abrOad-a pOrtentous
silence that startled her She raised
her head. The soft, rosy tints had faded
from the sky, and dense black clouds
were gathering overhead. Presently
WindoW-blindS swung to with a crash
at tbeOther side of the house, and the
trees swayed and bent before the cOur-
iers of the approaching tempest.


Faith went down stairs to close the
windows and fasten the doors. Just as
she did so heavy peal Of thunder rat
tied overhead, and lightning seemed to
dart from every quarter of the heavens.
Ills lllllG XII VI OuAS W elo Il1J SlCd1lN
brave. She did not know the meaning
of fine-Iady tremOrs, or what it was to
shrink from real or imaginary dangers.
In her present mood she rather enjoyed
this fierce cOnvulsiOn of the elements,
and deliberately seated herself upon
the doorstep to watch the progress of
events. Not a drop of rain has fallen
but now the rumbling of the thunder
was incessant, and the black clouds
were rent and Tiven by the fierce fOrked
lightning. At one moment the dark
ness was intense, the very blackness of
the densest midnight; the next both
earth and heaven were lit with q Iurid
glare that seemed to come straight from
the regions of everlasting flame.


She had forgotten Kenneth Marston,
forgotten Judith Grant, forgotten Faith
Harris. Her thoughts had gone on
the wings of the lightning to the ut
teTmost parts of the earth. Mans
voice is so small, so weak, when God
speaks. But just then the sultry fires
lit up the brow Of the hill, and for one
moment she beheld q vision.


A flying steed, white as the driven
snow against the background of ebony
clouds, a mass of tossing drapery, 2
gleam of golden hair streaming out
upon the night wind, white faced fix
ed in terror and despair, and two hands
clutching the silveFy name.


Faith took it all in at a glance. She
thought as the drowning think. A
lifetime was condensed into one mo-
ment's space.


Straight down the bill came the
frightened horse. At the bottom of it
if ae kept the road, there was a short
turn, sharp and sudden as a right an
/ gle. If he did not keep it, there was a
deep ravine straight ahead, and stones
( at the bottom. Faith Harris knew
that Judith Grant was riding right in
to the jaws of death either way. For
I one instant she elasped her hands over
/ her eyes, as if to shut out some fearful