imed Ralph, turning suddenly so that they stood
face to face, "do you truly believe that we shall ever see her again?"

The question was so abrupt that Cicely was taken unawares. She raised her
face toward the eager eyes bent upon her, but the courageous words she
wished to utter would not come, and she drooped her head. With a swift
movement, Ralph put his two hands upon her cheeks and gently raised her
face. He need not have looked at her, for the warm tears ran down upon
his hands.

"You do not," he said; and as he gazed down upon her, her face became
dim. For the first time since his boyhood, tears filled his eyes.

At a quick sound of hoofs and wheels, both started; and the next
moment the telegraph boy drove up close to the railing and held up a
yellow envelope.

"One dollar for delivery," said he; "that's night rates. This come jest
as the office was shetting up, and Mr. Martin said I'd got to deliver it
to-night; but I couldn't come till the moon was up."

Cicely, who was nearer, seized the telegram before Ralph could get it.

"Drive round to the back of the house," she said to the boy, "and I will
bring you the money."

She held the telegram, though Ralph had seized it.

"Don't be too quick," she said, "don't be too quick. There, you will tear
it in half. Let me open it for you."

She deftly drew the envelope from his hand, and spread the telegram on
the broad rail of the piazza, on which the moon shone full. Instantly
their heads were close together.

"I cannot read it," groaned Ralph; "my eyes are--"

"I can," interrupted Cicely, and she read aloud the message, which
ran thus,--

"Fear news of accident may trouble you. We are all well. Have written.
Miriam Haverley."

Ralph started back and stood upright, as if some one had shouted to him
from the sky. He said not one word, but Cicely gave a cry of joy. Ralph
turned toward her, and as he saw her face, irradiated by the moonlight
and her sudden happiness, he looked down upon her for one moment, and
then his arms were outstretched toward her; but, quick as was his motion,
her thought was quicker, and before he could touch her, she had darted
back with the telegram in her hand.

"I will show this to mother," she cried, and was in the house in
an instant.

La Fleur was in the hall, where for some time she had been quietly
standing, looking out upon the moonlight. From her position, which was
not a conspicuous one, at the door of the enclosed st