and I had again sat at
the old General's table, had listened to his words so rounded out with
kindliness, and upon returning to the porch had heard him storm at
something that had gone amiss. Millie showed her dimples and her pretty
teeth, smiling at Alf and at me, too, but I saw no evidence that she
loved him. Indeed, she had been so much petted that I thought she must
be a flirt, and yet she said nothing to give me that impression. Guinea
was just the same, good-humored, rarely serious. One Sunday I went to
church with her, walked, though the distance was two miles; stood near
the cave wherein the British soldiers had hidden themselves, and talked
of everything save love. I cannot say that I had a sacred respect for
her feelings; I think that I should have liked to torture her, but
something closed my heart against an utterance of its heavy fullness.

One Saturday afternoon I was told that the school-house would be ready
on the following Monday. I had been out many times to view the work,
but I decided to go again to see that everything was complete. I
expected that Alf would go with me, for the corn was laid by, but I
could not find him. His mother told me that he had put on his Sunday
clothes and that she had seen him going down the road. And so I went
alone. The house was done, and what a change from the pile of old logs!
The walls were painted white and the blinds were green. The bushes were
cleared off, and the scorched trees had been cut down, split up and
hauled away. I have never seen a neater picture, and in it I saw not
only the progress of the people, but the respect in which they held me.

I had come out of the woods on my way home and was on a high piece of
grazing land not far from the house when I saw a man ride up to the yard
fence, dismount, tie his horse and go into the house. This within itself
was nothing, for I had seen many of the neighbors come and go, but a
sudden chill seized upon me now, and there I shook, though the heat of
June lay upon the land; and it was some time before I could go forward,
stumbling, quaking, with my eyes fixed upon the horse tied at the fence.
In the yard behind the house I came upon Mrs. Jucklin, gathering up
white garments that had been spread to dry upon the althea bushes. "Chyd
Lundsford has come," she said, and I replied: "Yes, I know it."

I stepped upon the passage and passed the sitting-room door without
looking in; I sat down in a rocking chair that had been