ss, loss and love. Take them together, while there is
time. Better together than not at all. Quick--for the Spring is
passing by.--

Yet one who saw her sitting there, the breeze blowing tendrils of bright
hair about her face, her strong, lithe hands clasped youthfully about
her knees, her beautiful eyes darkling or brightening with the thoughts
that passed, could not have connected her with the mere passivity of
waiting, of remembering.

Sometimes the pale sunlight, growing daily in warmth, touched her cheek
or her hand like a caress, and stirred her to a sudden restlessness.

"It can't be all over for me," she thought, then. "It can't!"

It seemed to her that she had been like the Lady of Shalott, doomed to
see life only in a mirror, while her hands weaved eternally at a task of
which she had grown weary; hoping always for one to pass, that she might
turn and break the spell, and be done forever with the mirror....

At length a message came that put out of her mind both herself and the
man she loved. It was a telegram from Philip, sent from the mountain
town whence he and Jacqueline and Channing and Brother Bates had set
forth on their missionary expedition.

The telegram read:

Jacqueline wants you. Will meet morning train. Please bring Mag's
baby.

PHILIP.

CHAPTER LI

She was disappointed to find that Philip, despite his telegram, was not
at the station to meet her, but had sent instead a wagon which, its
driver explained, was to take her as far as wheels were feasible after
the Spring rains, and then return.

"Reckon thar'll be a mule or somethin' to tote you the rest of the way,"
he added, indifferently.

He was unable to answer any of her questions, or to allay the fears
which, despite the eager happiness in her heart, were beginning to make
themselves felt. Jacqueline wanted her at last--but why?

Mile after mile they drove in utter silence, Kate's thoughts racing
ahead of her; while small Kitty, on a pile of quilts in the bottom of
the bouncing wagon, adapted herself to circumstances with the ease of a
born traveler, and alternately dozed, or imbibed refreshment out of a
bottle, or rehearsed her vocabulary aloud for the pleasure of the world
at large. She would have preferred a more attentive audience, but she
could do without it.

Where the road degenerated into a mere trail along the mountain-side,
Kate found a mule awaiting her, in charge, not of Philip, as