housand times--should she tell Kate? How
would she take it? Would the tragedy of her life be regarded as a
little wild-oat sowing on the part of Sanderson and her own eternal
disgrace?

The man was in no humor for her silence. He grasped her roughly by the
arm, and his voice was raised loud in angry protest. "Tell me--do you,
or do you not intend to interfere?"

In the excitement of the moment neither heard the outer door open, and
neither heard David enter. He stood in his quiet way, looking from one
to the other. Sanderson's angry question died away in some foolish
commonplace, but David had heard and Anna and Sanderson knew it.

CHAPTER XV.

DAVID CONFESSES HIS LOVE.

"Come live with me and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
Woods, or steep mountains, yield."--_Marlowe_.

Sanderson, recovering his self-possession almost immediately, drawled
out:

"Glad to see you, Dave. Came over thinking I might be in time to go
over to Putnam's with your people. They had gone, so I stopped long
enough to get warm. I must be going now. Good-night, Miss--Miss"--(he
seemed, to have great difficulty in recalling the name) "Moore."

David paid no attention to him; his eyes were riveted on Anna, who had
changed color and was now like ivory flushing into life. She trembled
and fell to her knees, making a pretense of gathering up her knitting
that had fallen.

"What brought Sanderson here, Anna? Is he anything to you--are you
anything to him?"

She tried to assume a playful lightness, but it failed dismally. It
was all her pallid lips could do to frame the words: "Why, Mr. David,
what a curious question! What possible interest could the 'catch' of
the neighborhood have in your father's servant?"

The suggestion of flippancy that her words contained irritated the
grave, quiet man as few things could have done. He turned from her and
would have left the room, but she detained him.

"I am sorry I wounded you, Mr. David, but, indeed, you have no right to
ask."

"I know it, Anna, and you won't give me the right; but how dared that
cub Sanderson speak to you in that way?" He caught her hand, and
unconsciously wrung it till she cried out in pain. "Forgive me, dear,
I would not hurt you for the world; but that man's manner toward you
makes me wild."

She looked up at him from beneath her long, dark lashes; he thought her
eyes were like th