she said, drawing her
chair nearer and speaking in an undertone, "he is my great dread, and
for fear of wounding mother's feelings I have had to keep my terrors to
myself. I know that he is often out, away from the plantation, all
night. I have for weeks past suspected that he was a Ku Klux, and last
night, or rather early this morning, my suspicions were so fully
confirmed that they now amount almost to certainty. I had been up all
night with Daisy, and a little before sunrise happening to be at the
window, I saw him stealing into the house with a bundle under his
arm,--something white rolled up in the careless sort of way a man would
do it."

"I am not surprised," said Mr. Dinsmore, "he is just the sort of man one
would expect to be at such work,--headstrong, violent tempered, and
utterly selfish and unscrupulous. Yet I think you may dismiss your fears
of him, and feel it rather a safeguard than otherwise to have a member
of the Klan in your family."

"It may be so," she said, musingly, the cloud of care partially lifting
from her brow.

"And at all events you are not without a protector, dear sister,"
whispered Rose, as she bade adieu. "'A father of the fatherless, and a
judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation.'"

Elsie too had a word of sympathy and hope for her childhood's friend,
and with warm invitations to both the Oaks and Ion as soon as Daisy
could be moved with safety, they left her, greatly cheered and refreshed
by their visit.

"My heart aches for her," Elsie said as they drove away, "what a sad,
sad thing to be a widow!"

"Yes;" responded Rose, "and to have lost your husband so,--fighting
against the land of your birth and love."

There was a long pause broken by a sudden, half frightened exclamation
from Rosie. "Papa! what if we should meet the Ku Klux!"

"Not much danger, I think: they are not apt to be abroad so early. And
we are nearing Ion."

"I presume Edward has reached home before us," remarked Elsie, "I wonder
how my little ones enjoyed their first visit to Roselands without their
mother."

She soon learned; for she had scarcely set foot in the veranda ere they
were clinging about her and pouring out the story of their terrible
fright.

She pitied, soothed and comforted them, trying to dispel their fears and
lead them to forgive those who had so ill-used them, though it cost no
small effort to do so herself.

Chapter Tenth.

"Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven."