ot know; whereupon Susan
dropped her eyes and said, "Clement,--I mean Mr. Lindsay."

That was a fair piece of news now, and Olive had her bonnet on five
minutes after Susan was gone, and was on her way to Bathsheba's,--it was
too bad that the poor girl who lived so out of the world shouldn't know
anything of what was going on in it. Bathsheba had been in all the
morning, and the Doctor had said she must take the air every day; so
Bathsheba had on her bonnet a little after Olive had gone, and walked
straight up to The Poplars to tell Myrtle Hazard that a certain young
gentleman, Clement Lindsay, was coming to Oxbow Village.

It was perhaps fortunate that there was no special significance to Myrtle
in the name of Clement Lindsay. Since the adventure which had brought
these two young persons together, and, after coming so near a disaster,
had ended in a mere humiliation and disappointment, and but for Master
Gridley's discreet kindness might have led to foolish scandal, Myrtle had
never referred to it in any way. Nobody really knew what her plans had
been except Olive and Cyprian, who had observed a very kind silence about
the whole matter. The common version of the story was harmless, and near
enough to the truth,--down the river,--boat upset,--pulled out,--taken
care of by some women in a house farther down,--sick, brain
fever,--pretty near it, anyhow,--old Dr. Hurlbut called in,--had her hair
cut,--hystericky, etc., etc.

Myrtle was contented with this statement, and asked no questions, and it
was a perfectly understood thing that nobody alluded to the subject in
her presence. It followed from all this that the name of Clement Lindsay
had no peculiar meaning for her. Nor was she like to recognize him as
the youth in whose company she had gone through her mortal peril, for all
her recollections were confused and dreamlike from the moment when she
awoke and found herself in the foaming rapids just above the fall, until
that when her senses returned, and she saw Master Byles Gridley standing
over her with that look of tenderness in his square features which had
lingered in her recollection, and made her feel towards him as if she
were his daughter.

Now this had its advantage; for as Clement was Susan's young man, and had
been so for two or three years, it would have been a great pity to have
any such curious relations established between him and Myrtle Hazard as a
consciousness on both sides of what had happened