en the matter a thought he would have supposed to be
sitting just then by the bedside of her patient, a half mile back on the
road.

She was dressed for the woods in a blue skirt and jacket and moved like
a leader in front of a heavily laden wagon now coming to a standstill
before the closely shut shed--if such we may call it.

"I have a key," so she called out to the driver who had paused for
orders. "When I swing the doors wide, drive straight in."

Sweetwater took a look at the wagon. It was piled high with large wooden
boxes on more than one of which he could see scrawled the words: O.
Brotherson, Derby, Pa.

This explained her presence, but the boxes told nothing. They were of
all sizes and shapes, and some of them so large that the assistance of
another man was needed to handle them. Sweetwater was about to offer his
services when a second man appeared from somewhere in the rear, and the
detective's attention being thus released from the load out of which he
could make nothing, he allowed it to concentrate upon the young girl
who had it in charge and who, for many reasons, was the one person of
supreme importance to him.

She had swung open the two wide doors, and now stood waiting for horse
and wagon to enter. With locks flying free--she wore no bonnet--she
presented a picture of ever increasing interest to Sweetwater. Truly
she was a very beautiful girl, buoyant, healthy and sweet; as unlike
as possible his preconceived notions of Miss Challoner's humble little
protegee. Her brown hair of a rich chestnut hue, was in itself a wonder.
On no head, even in the great city he had just left, had he seen such
abundance, held in such modest restraint. Nature had been partial to
this little working girl and given her the chevelure of a queen.

But this was nothing. No one saw this aureole when once the eye had
rested on her features and caught the full nobility of their expression
and the lurking sweetness underlying her every look. She herself made
the charm and whether placed high or placed low, must ever attract the
eye and afterwards lure the heart, by an individuality which hardly
needed perfect features in which to express itself.

Young yet, but gifted, as girls of her class often are, with the nicest
instincts and purest aspirations, she showed the elevation of her
thoughts both in her glance and the poise with which she awaited
events. Sweetwater watched her with admiration as she superintended
the unload