.

She held up bravely, but tears were running down her cheeks. Travis
struck another match to light a lamp which had been forgotten and
left on the mantel. He attempted to light it, but something huge and
black swept by and extinguished it. Helen shrieked again, and coming
up timidly seized his arm in the dark. He could feel her heart
beating excitedly against it.

He struck another match.

"Don't be uneasy, it is nothing but an owl."

The light was turned up and showed an owl sitting on the top of an
old tester that had formerly been the canopy of her grandmother's
bed.

The owl stared stupidly at them--turning its head solemnly.

Helen laughed hysterically.

"Now, sit down on the old sofa," he said. "There is much to say to
you. We are now on the verge of a tragedy or a farce, or--"

"Sometimes plays end well, where all are happy, do they not?" she
asked, smiling hysterically and sitting by him, but looking at the
uncanny owl beyond. She was silent, then:

"Oh, I--I--don't you think I am entitled now--to have something end
happily--now--once--in my life?"

He pitied her and was silent.

"Tell me," she said after a while, "you have moved father and Lily
to--to--one of the Cottontown cottages?"

He arose: "In a little while I will tell you, but now we must have
something to eat first--you see I had this lunch fixed for our
journey." He went out, over to his lap-robe and cushion, and brought
a basket and placed it on an old table.

"You may begin now and be my housekeeper," he smiled. "Isn't it time
you were learning? I daresay I'll not find you a novice, though."

She flushed and smiled. She arose gracefully, and her pretty hands
soon had the lunch spread, Travis helping her awkwardly.

It was a pretty picture, he thought--her flushed girlish face, yet
matronly ways. He watched her slyly, with a sad joyousness in his
eyes, drinking it in, as one who had hungered long for contentment
and peace, such as this.

She had forgotten everything else in the housekeeping. She even
laughed some at his awkwardness and scolded him playfully, for,
man-like, forgetting a knife and fork. It was growing chilly, and
while she set the lunch he went out and brought in some wood. Soon a
fine oak fire burned in the fireplace.

They sat at the old table at last, side by side, and ate the
delightful lunch. Under the influence of the bottle of claret, from
The Gaffs cellar, her courage came and her animation was beautifu