nobly, and left the girl with the impression that the condition of the
suspected heart was really very desirable.

"It's this way," he explained, "all hearts is tricky, an' once ye know
the tricks, why, there ain't no danger. It's like knowin' the weak
p'ints of a vessel, ye ain't goin' t' strain the weak p'ints, once ye
know 'em, an' like as not the vessel'll last twice as long as a seemin'
sound boat. Don't ye fret, Janet, James B. can loaf a considerable
spell, if it's my goin' he's dependin' 'pon. An' no one more'n James B.
will be thankfuller fur my hangin' on."

Davy's funeral calls had had a beneficial effect upon the community.
More than one woman said afterward that it looked as if Susan Jane's
mantle had fallen upon Davy's shoulders.

"He said t' me!"--and Mrs. Jo G.'s catlike eyes glittered,--"he said as
how t' his mind a gossiper was like a jellyfish, sort o' slimy an'
transparent, an' when you went t' clutch it, it stung! I asked him right
out flat footed what he meant, an' he told me t' think it over!"

More than Mrs. Jo G. thought Davy's words over, and, as a result, turned
their attention to getting ready for the winter.

The oyster boats dotted the bay. The wood was piled near the kitchen
doors, and the Methodist minister, with a sigh of relief, came down from
the mental pinnacle upon which he had endeavored during the summer to
attract strangers, and preached sermons from his heart to the hearts of
the Quintonites. A donation party was in the air, too, and the needy
pastor grew eloquent along generous, ethical lines.

Eliza Jane, in a detached and injured manner, continued to cook up at
Bluff Head. The master, feeling that at least he paid for the necessity,
ate in peace; but Saxton, who fell between the aristocracy of Devant's
ideas and the Quintonite ideal, suffered cruelly from his plebeian
position. Only a vague hope of city life and pleasures held him to his
position. And Devant was undecided as to what he should do. Thornly had
not "looked him up" after seeing Katharine. Indeed, that rigid young man
had sailed, within the week, for Point Comfort, and Devant, fearing to
meet Katharine alone, had hurried back to Bluff Head, there to be
confronted by his Past in a most crushing manner. So unlooked for and
appalling was the resurrected ghost, that it had stunned him and left
him unable to act. He feared to make a false move and waited for Janet
to point out the way. But the girl remained upon th