thing in his intimacy with Susan Posey, so far, might come
under the general head of friendship; but he was conscious that something
more was in both their thoughts. Susan had given him mysterious hints
that her relations with Clement had undergone a change, but had never had
quite courage enough, perhaps had too much delicacy, to reveal the whole
truth.

Gifted was walking home, deeply immersed in thoughts excited by the hints
which hail been thus wantonly thrown out to inflame his imagination, when
all at once, on lifting his eyes, he saw Clement Lindsay coming straight
towards him. Gifted was unarmed, except with a pair of blunt scissors,
which he carried habitually in his pocket. What should he do? Should he
fly? But he was never a good runner, being apt to find himself scant o'
breath, like Hamlet, after violent exercise. His demeanor on the
occasion did credit to his sense of his own virtuous conduct and his
self-possession. He put his hand out, while yet at a considerable
distance, and marched up towards Clement, smiling with all the native
amiability which belonged to him.

To his infinite relief, Clement put out his hand to grasp the one offered
him, and greeted the young poet in the most frank and cordial manner.

"And how is Miss Susan Posey, Mr. Hopkins?" asked Clement, in the most
cheerful tone. "It is a long while since I have seen her, and you must
tell her that I hope I shall not leave the village without finding time
to call upon her. She and I are good friends always, Mr. Hopkins, though
perhaps I shall not be quite so often at your mother's as I was during my
last visit to Oxbow Village."

Gifted felt somewhat as the subject of one of those old-fashioned forms
of argument, formerly much employed to convince men of error in matters
of religion, must have felt when the official who superintended the
stretching-machine said, "Slack up!"

He told Mr. Clement all about Susan, and was on the point of saying that
if he, Mr. Clement, did not claim any engrossing interest in her, he,
Gifted, was ready to offer her the devotion of a poet's heart. Mr.
Clement, however, had so many other questions to ask him about everybody
in the village, more particularly concerning certain young persons in
whom he seemed to be specially interested, that there was no chance to
work in his own revelations of sentiment.

Clement Lindsay had come to Oxbow Village with a single purpose. He
could now venture to trust