of the lovers in the books she read aloud during the winter
evenings; her heart understood that love, which brings the highest
joy, may also cause the deepest sorrow. But apart from the sorrows of
ill-starred love, she caught glimpses of something else--a terrible
something which she did not understand. Dark forms would now and then
appear to her, gliding through the paradise of love, disgraced and
abject. The sacred name of love was linked with the direst shame and the
deepest misery. Among people whom she knew, things happened from time
to time which she dared not think about; and when, in stern but guarded
words, her father chanced to speak of moral corruption, she would
shrink, for hours afterwards, from meeting his eye.

He remarked this and was glad. In such sensitive purity had she grown
up, so completely had he succeeded in holding aloof from her whatever
could disturb her childlike innocence, that her soul was like a shining
pearl to which no mire could cling.

He prayed that he might ever keep her thus!

So long as he himself was there to keep watch, no harm should approach
her. And if he was called away, he had at least provided her with armor
of proof for life, which would stand her in good stead on the day of
battle. And a day of battle no doubt would come. He gazed at her with
a look which she did not understand, and said with his strong faith,
"Well, well, everything is in the hand of Providence!"

"Haven't you time to go for a walk with me to-day, father?" asked
Rebecca, when they had finished dinner.

"Why, yes; do you know, I believe it would do me good. The weather is
delightful, and I've been so industrious that my sermon is as good as
finished."

They stepped out upon the threshold before the main entrance, which
faced the other buildings of the farm. There was this peculiarity about
the Parsonage, that the high-road, leading to the town, passed right
through the farm-yard. The Pastor did not at all like this, for before
everything he loved peace and quietness; and although the district was
sufficiently out-of-the-way, there was always a certain amount of life
on the road which led to the town.

But for Ansgarius the little traffic that came their way was an
inexhaustible source of excitement. While the father and daughter stood
on the threshold discussing whether they should follow the road or go
through the heather down to the beach, the young warrior suddenly came
rushing up the hill and