lode, and Harry trying to get his breath, the earth opening under
him, the skies falling all about his head.

"She told you so! When!" he gasped.

"Two minutes ago--you've just missed her! Where the devil have you been?
Why didn't you come in before?"

"Kate here--two minutes ago--what will I do?" Had he found himself at
sea in an open boat with both oars adrift he could not have been more
helpless.

"DO! Catch her before she gets home! Quick!--just as you are--sailor
clothes and all!"

"But how will I know if--?"

"You don't have to know! Away with you, I tell you!"

And away he went--and if you will believe it, dear reader--without even
a whisper in his uncle's ears of the good news he had come to tell.

CHAPTER XXX

Ben let him in.

He came as an apparition, the old butler balancing the door in his hand,
as if undecided what to do, trying to account for the change in the
young man's appearance--the width of shoulders, the rough clothes, and
the determined glance of his eye.

"Fo' Gawd, it's Marse Harry!" was all he said when he could get his
mouth open.

"Yes, Ben--go and tell your mistress I am here," and he brushed past
him and pushed back the drawing-room door. Once inside he crossed to the
mantel and stood with his back to the hearth, his sailor's cap in his
hand, his eyes fixed on the door he had just closed behind him. Through
it would come the beginning or the end of his life. Ben's noiseless
entrance and exit a moment after, with his mistress's message neither
raised nor depressed his hopes. He had known all along she would not
refuse to see him: what would come after was the wall that loomed up.

She had not hesitated, nor did she keep him waiting. Her eyes were still
red with weeping, her hair partly dishevelled, when Ben found her--but
she did not seem to care. Nor was she frightened--nor eager. She just
lifted her cheek from Mammy Henny's caressing hand--pushed back the
hair from her face with a movement as if she was trying to collect her
thoughts, and without rising from her knees heard Ben's message to the
end. Then she answered calmly:

"Did you say Mr. Harry Rutter, Ben? Tell him I'll be down in a moment."

She entered with that same graceful movement which he loved so well--her
head up, her face turned frankly toward him, one hand extended in
welcome.

"Uncle George told me you were back, Harry. It was very good of you to
come," and sank on the sofa.

It had been b