esent
she has made me that I can remember. It was an orphan, and you
wouldn't have it in your asylum, and my mother was in a peculiar
mood, I suppose. She amused herself with the idea of making me
such a present. But Anna, watch that calf, and see if thereby does
not hang a tale. I am sure, in some mysterious way, my destiny is
bound up with it. Calves do have destinies, don't they, Anna?"

"Oh, don't ask _me_, Harriet! Inquire of their Creator; or try the
market-house."

It was at the end of this visit that Harriet as usual imparted to
Miss Anna the freshest information regarding affairs at home: that
Isabel had gone to spend the summer with friends at the seashore,
and was to linger with other friends in the mountains during
autumn; that her mother had changed her own plans, and was to keep
the house open, and had written for the Fieldings--Victor's mother
and brothers and sisters--to come and help fill the house; that
everything was to be very gay.

"I cannot fathom what is under it all," said Harriet, with her
hand on the side gate at leaving. "But I know that mother and
Isabel have quarrelled. I believe mother has transferred her
affections--and perhaps her property. She has rewritten her will
since Isabel went away. What have I to do, Anna, but interest
myself in other people's affairs? I have none of my own. And she
never calls Isabel's name, but pets Victor from morning till night.
And her expression sometimes! I tell you, Anna, that when I see
it, if I were a bird and could fly, gunshot could not catch me. I
see a summer before me! If there is ever a chance of my doing
_anything_, don't be shocked if I do it;" and in Harriet's eyes
there were two mysterious sparks of hope--two little rising suns.

"What did she mean?" pondered Miss Anna.

IV

"Barbee," said Judge Morris one morning a fortnight later, "what
has become of Marguerite? One night not long ago you complained of
her as an obstacle in the path of your career: does she still annoy
you with her attentions? You could sue out a writ of habeas corpus
in your own behalf if she persists. I'd take the case. I believe
you asked me to mark your demeanor on the evening of that party. I
tried to mark it; but I did not discover a great deal of demeanor
to mark."

The two were sitting in the front office. The Judge, with nothing
to do, was facing the street, his snow-white cambric handkerchief
thrown across one knee, his hands g