than the unconscious girl did. Mrs Jo trembled lest he should
betray himself; but he had learned self-control in a stern school, and
would have got through the hard moment bravely, only, when he took both
hands, saying heartily:

'Good-bye, Princess. If we don't meet again, remember your old friend
Dan sometimes,' she, touched by his late danger and the wistful look he
wore, answered with unusual warmth: 'How can I help it, when you make us
all so proud of you? God bless your mission, and bring you safely home
to us again!'

As she looked up at him with a face full of frank affection and sweet
regret, all that he was losing rose so vividly before him that Dan could
not resist the impulse to take the 'dear goldy head' between his hands
and kiss it, with a broken 'Good-bye'; then hurried back to his room,
feeling as if it were the prison-cell again, with no glimpse of heaven's
blue to comfort him.

This abrupt caress and departure rather startled Bess; for she felt with
a girl's quick instinct that there was something in that kiss unknown
before, and looked after him with sudden colour in her cheeks and new
trouble in her eyes. Mrs Jo saw it, and fearing a very natural question
answered it before it was put.

'Forgive him, Bess. He has had a great trouble, and it makes him tender
at parting with old friends; for you know he may never come back from
the wild world he is going to.'

'You mean the fall and danger of death?' asked Bess, innocently.

'No, dear; a greater trouble than that. But I cannot tell you any
more--except that he has come through it bravely; so you may trust and
respect him, as I do.'

'He has lost someone he loved. Poor Dan! We must be very kind to him.'

Bess did not ask the question, but seemed content with her solution of
the mystery--which was so true that Mrs Jo confirmed it by a nod, and
let her go away believing that some tender loss and sorrow wrought the
great change all saw in Dan, and made him so slow to speak concerning
the past year.

But Ted was less easily satisfied, and this unusual reticence goaded
him to desperation. His mother had warned him not to trouble Dan with
questions till he was quite well; but this prospect of approaching
departure made him resolve to have a full, clear, and satisfactory
account of the adventures which he felt sure must have been thrilling,
from stray words Dan let fall in his fever. So one day when the coast
was clear, Master Ted volunteered to am