s finger along it as if
examining the fabric and the stitches. "I took one glass," he said,
with the curious quiet gravity which lay to-night like a spell upon all
his words and actions.

"Well," she said cheerily, "I don't believe in a man making a slave of
himself, not to take a glass when he wants it just because he sometimes
makes a beast of himself by taking more than he ought."

"If you choose to think black is white, Ann, it will not make it that
way."

"That's true," she replied compliantly; "and you've got more call to
know than I have, for I've never 'been there.'"

"God forbid!" he said with sudden intensity. All the habits of thought
of the last year put strength into his words. "If I thought you ever
could be 'there,' Ann, it's nothing to say that I'd die to save you from
it."

She let her thought dwell for a moment upon the picture of herself as a
drunkard which had caused such intense feeling in him. "I am not worth
his caring what becomes of me in that way," she thought to herself. It
was the first time it ever occurred to her to think that she was
unworthy of the love he had for her; but at the same moment she felt a
shadow extinguish the rays of hope she had begun to feel, for she
believed, as Bart did, that his piety was in direct opposition to the
help he might otherwise give her. She had begun to hope that piety had
loosened its grasp upon him for the time.

"I don't know what's to become of us, Christa and me," she said
despairingly; "if we don't take to drink it will be a wonder, everybody
turning the cold shoulder on us."

This was not her true thought at all. She knew herself to be quite
incapable of the future she suggested, but the theme was excellently
adapted to work upon his feelings.

"I'm going away to-night, Ann," he said; "perhaps I won't see you again
for a long time; but you know all that you said you would promise last
night----"

Her heart began to beat so sharply against her side with sudden hope,
and perhaps another feeling to which she gave no name, that her answer
was breathless. "Yes," she said eagerly, "if----"

He went on gravely: "I am going to start to-night in a row-boat for The
Mills. You can tell me where your father is, and on my way I'll do all I
can to help him to get away. It won't be much use perhaps. It is most
likely that he will only get away from this locality to be arrested in
another, but all that one man can do to help him I will do; but you'll