t
but good deeds."

"I truly didn't mean to do any harm, Charlotte," Rose repeated.

"I know you didn't. We won't say any more about it."

"I was just running over across lots last night," Rose said. "I
supposed you'd be in the front room with Barney, but I thought I'd
see Aunt Sarah. I'd got terrible lonesome; mother had gone to sleep
in her chair, and father had gone to bed. When I got out by the
stone-wall next the wood I heard you; then I ran right back. Don't
you--suppose he'll ever come again, Charlotte?"

"No," said Charlotte.

"Oh, Charlotte!" There was a curious quality in the girl's voice, as
if some great hidden emotion in her heart tried to leap to the
surface and make a sound, although it was totally at variance with
the import of her cry. Charlotte started, without knowing why. It was
as if Rose's words and her tone had different meanings, and
conflicted like the wrong lines with a tune.

"I gave it up last night," said Charlotte. "It's all over. I'm goin'
to pack my wedding things away."

"I don't see what makes you so sure."

"I know him."

"But I don't see what you've done, Charlotte; he didn't quarrel with
you."

"That don't make any odds. He can't get married to me now without he
breaks his will, and he can't. He can't get outside himself enough to
break it. I've studied it all out. It's like ciphering. It's all
over."

"Charlotte."

"What is it?"

"Why--couldn't you go somewhere else to get married? What's the need
of his comin' here, if he's been ordered out, and he's said he
wouldn't?"

"That's just the letter of it," returned Charlotte, scornfully. "Do
you suppose he could cheat himself that way, or I'd have him if he
could? When Barney Thayer went out of this house last night, and said
what he did, he meant that it was all over, that he was never going
to marry me, nor have anything more to do with us, and he's going to
stand by it. I am not finding any fault with him. I've made up my
mind that it's all over, and I'm going to pack away my weddin'
things."

"Oh, Charlotte, you take it so calm!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"If it was anybody else, I should think they didn't care."

"Maybe I don't."

"I couldn't bear it so, anyhow! I couldn't!" Rose cried out, with
sudden passion. "I wouldn't bear it. I'd go down on my knees to him
to come back!" Rose flung back her head and looked at Charlotte with
a curious defiance; her face grew suddenly intense, and seemed to
op