ed, "Mrs. Tracy sent me word she was going to
call between four and five to give me a few points about the girls'
sewing-class, and I thought I would at the same time give her a few
points about dressing herself. You know she is usually a fright."

"I thought--perhaps--you had dressed yourself to please me."

"You are quite right, John. Your pleasure is always the first motive for
anything I do or wear."

The dinner hour passed to such pleasant platitudes as John's description
of the manner in which Greenwood broke up the radical meeting in the
market-place; but in both hearts and below all the sweet intercourse
there lay a sense of tragedy that nothing could propitiate or avert.

The subject, however, was not named till they were quite alone and the
very house in its intense stillness appeared to be waiting and listening
for the words to be spoken. John was about to speak them, but Jane rose
suddenly to her feet and looking steadily at him said,

"John, what did your mother say about me this afternoon? I expect you to
tell me every word."

"She would not talk about you in any way. She said she had given you her
whole mind straight to your face and would do no backbiting. That is, as
you know, mother's way."

"Well, John, I would rather have the backbiting. I like to be treated
decently to my face. People are welcome to say whatever they like when
I am not present to be annoyed by their evil suspicions."

"She told me to ask you what was said and I trust you will tell me."

"I will. You remember that I had a whole society of women in the parlors
and I could only give you a short farewell; but I was much grieved to
send you away with such a brooding sorrow in your heart. The next day I
was putting the house in order and writing to you and I did not go out.
But on the morning of the third day I determined to visit my mother and
to call at Hatton Hall as I returned home.

"I did not have a pleasant visit at Harlow. Since mother has begun to
save money, she has lost all interest in any other subject. I told her
how affairs were between us, and though she had hitherto been rabidly in
favor of no children she appeared that morning indifferent to everything
but the loss of a brood of young chickens which some animal had eaten or
carried off. On this subject she was passionately in earnest; she knew
to a farthing the amount of her loss, and when I persisted in telling
her how you and I had parted, she only reiterated