tting, who could say, what evil into her
heart.

Ten o'clock and the agent's buggy had not left the barn. Joe could
contain himself no longer. He was at work in a little stony piece of
late clover, so rough he did not like to risk the mower in it. For three
hours he had been laying the tumbled swaths in winding tracks across the
field, and he had a very good excuse for going to the well, indeed.
Coupled with that was the need of a whet-rock, and behind it all the
justification of his position. He was there in his master's place; he
must watch and guard the honor of his house.

Joe could not set out on that little trip without a good deal of moral
cudgeling when it came to the point, although he threw down his scythe
with a muttered curse on his lips for the man who was playing such an
underhanded game.

It was on Ollie's account he hesitated. Ollie would think that he
suspected her, when there was nothing farther from his mind. It was
Morgan who would set the snare for her to trip into, and it was Morgan
that he was going to send about his business. But Ollie might take
offense and turn against him, and make it as unpleasant as she had shown
that she could make it agreeable.

But duty was stronger than friendship. It was stern and implacable, and
there was no pleasant road to take around it and come out with honor at
the other end.

Joe made as much noise as he could with his big feet--and that was no
inconsiderable amount--as he approached the house. But near the building
the grass was long, and soft underfoot, and it bore Joe around to the
kitchen window silently. His lips were too dry to whistle; his heart was
going too fast to carry a tune.

He paused a little way beyond the window, which stood open with the sun
falling through it, listening for the sound of their voices. It was
strangely silent for a time when the book-agent was around.

Joe went on, his shadow breaking the sunbeam which whitened the kitchen
floor. There was a little quick start as he came suddenly to the kitchen
door; a hurried stir of feet. As he stepped upon the porch he saw Morgan
in the door, Ollie not a yard behind him, their hands just breaking
their clasp. Joe knew in his heart that Morgan had been holding her in
his arms.

Ollie's face was flushed, her hair was disturbed. Her bosom rose and
fell like troubled water, her eyes were brighter than Joe ever had seen
them. Even Morgan was different, sophisticated and brazen that he was