Year: 1870

morning, remember" pushing heI


hair hack and kissing her forehead


again and again, turning as he was
halfway down the path.


! t'To-mOrrOw." But her mouth was


80 parched that she did not hear her
| self speak. She watched him get his
horse, and go through the gate down


the hill. Then she lost sight Of him.
!, But there WAS q break in the hedge,
and there she would see him again
She always watched him pass that


break. How quickly he went! He
did not seemed to remember sthat


she was watching him, aud that il


Was-tUds it for the last time?


When he was gone, the last fOOtstep


died away, she turned into her room.
She could hear the Squire and Lau-
renee talking of her, and of this trial
she had been subjected by the whim
Of her father. How would she bear
it? they said. Would the glitter of
the gold tempt her to rob Laurence OF


his Just share? Such religion as she


had, poor as the quality was, was to


he put to the test now, they said
What would il do for her?


1 When their voices too had ceased,
and all was quiet in the house, Bart
still stood by the open window, re-
beating their words over and over un-
ill they dulled her brain. What would
her religion do for her now? What
would it do?


She found herself presently on her
knees before Laurence's fire, trying to
blow the dying embers into life. Come
| srrh II no
Portable. She went through her nightly


work mechanically. Then she came
back to the open window, knowing
that before she left il she must choose
what her life must be to the end. She
looked down into the quiet valley,
with the Wisping drifts Of smoke here
and there in the mOOnlisht. In every
one of those sleeping farm houses she
had friends, but to whom could she
turn now? Even Sydney had been
glad to hurry away from her in this
her desperate strait.


For Bart had not that cool and Just
reasoning faculty which belongs to
higher intellects. All that she knew
were the human beings in it. She
was not herself when they did not hem
her in; one would have thought that
the very blood in her veins had drawn
| its redness and strength from thou
sand other hearts; none Of Gods
creatures were 50 weak as she when
left alone.


How it was, therefore, that, left to
herself at that time, she did struggle
to shore, and stood there for life, is q
something which no one ever under
stood. Laurence said that the shadow
Of the mill, with its fatal secret, had
oppressed and conquered her that
night, as the ghost of q human being
might have done. The Squire in his
soul believed that it was the faith or
sham of faith that she held which led
her to her decision.


Whatever it may have been, she
reached that decision at last. An Or
binary figure enOugh-the short, stout
young girl, in her gingham dress,
standing i'm the window, and looking
down at an old mill in the moonlight.
But i'm the old mill was the ghost that
crosses every mans path some day.
On one side Of her was q life of hard
work, poverty, burdens which were
not her own TO bear; on the other,
quiet and ease-a fate to which every
selfish instinct Of her nature drew her
as with links OF steel.


When the clock struck midnight
she went and sat down, looking duly
into the fire. Laurence came in drip
ping wet with the night-damps, and,
going up to the hearth, looked at her.


"YOu have made your chOice? he
said.


81 will take the mill"


He laughed loudly. $50 there is
the end of the precious bond between
u.s."


"That Is the end, IsuppOse, brother"


''The thought of this treasure has
taken an awful hold onyou,p he said,
noticing her pinched face and the
black hOllOws about her eyes; and SO
left her.


When he had gone about an hour,
she rose slowly, going into the room
where her trunks were, and unpacked
them one by one, putting away the
little store of household linen last,
without sob or tear, the hollow sink
ing darker under her eyes.


There We're square bits OF paper on
the trunks, on which Sydney had
printed her married name; she stop
ped and tore them of, but slowly, as
If were a living thing which she touch
ed and hurt. She was single woman
now for the rest of her life.


When all was done she paused
moment, and then, blushing scarlet,
and growing pale afterward, she quick |
ly took from the bottom of one of her |
trunks small package marked with
her name in her mothers writing. 1t |
was little dress, dainty worked, and |
q cap which she had worn when she !
was q baby. 'I made them" her |
mother told her once. "If you are |
ever u mother, put them on your first
born child, Bertha, for love of me-"


Bertha stood folding and unfolding |
them before the the fire. She was q |
very humane woman, and that which !
to other girls Is but o vague, sweet |
dream, was to her q reality, without |
which her life would be vacant and q ;
long mistake. Presently she laid the |
little garments on the fire, and watch |
ed them flash and friZzle away, and /
then she sat down, and while the fire
burned down into gray ashes, she cried
bitterly.