and, thinking it the easiest way
to be rid of him, she took from her pocket a shilling and handed it to
him, saying, "It's all I can give you, unless it is a dinner. Are you
hungry?"

Hester, who had returned to the kitchen, was busy in a distant part of
the room, and she did not notice the paleness which overspread
Lenora's face at the words which the beggar uttered when, she
presented the money to him. She caught, however, the low murmur of
their voices, as they spoke together for a moment, and as Lenora
accompanied him to the door, she distinctly heard the words, "In the
garden."

"And maybe that's some of your kin; you look like him," said she to
Lenora, after the stranger was gone.

"That's my business, not yours," answered Lenora, as she left the
kitchen and repaired to her mother's room.

"Lenora, what ails you?" said Mrs. Hamilton to her daughter at the
tea-table that night, when, after putting salt in one cup of tea, and
upsetting a second, she commenced spreading her biscuit with cheese
instead of butter. "What ails you? What are you thinking about? You
don't seem to know any more what you are doing than the dead."

Lenora made no direct reply to this, but soon after she said, "Mother,
how long has father been dead--my own father I mean?"

"Two or three years, I don't exactly know which," returned her mother,
and Lenora continued:

"How did he look? I hardly remember him."

"You have asked me that fifty times," answered her mother, "and fifty
times I have told you that he looked like you, only worse, if
possible."

"Let me see, where did you say he died?" said Lenora.

"In New Orleans, with yellow fever, or black measles, or smallpox, or
something," Mrs. Hamilton replied, "but mercy's sake! can't you choose
a better subject to talk about? What made you think of him? He's been
haunting me all day, and I feel kind of nervous and want to look over
my shoulder whenever I am alone."

Lenora made no further remark until after tea, when she announced her
intention of going to the village.

"Come back early, for I don't feel like staying alone," said her
mother.

The sun had set when Lenora left the village, and by the time she
reached home it was wholly dark. As she entered the garden the outline
of a figure; sitting on a bench at its further extremity, made her
stop for a moment, but thinking to herself, "I expected it, and why
should I be afraid?" she walked on fearlessly, until the person,
rouse