ew himself down on the grass beside the willow trunk on which she
was seated and held out his hand for the book. After running his eye over
the page he handed it back to her with the request that she read on. The
heat of the summer day shimmered along the horizon outside, but here in
the cool shade of the willows the delicious afternoon air lulled his
senses and made of the spot a paradise of comfort and contentment. The
girl was the embodiment of everything sweet and womanly to him, and the
joy of the moment, bringing added colour to her cheeks, made the utmost
contrast imaginable to the dust and drudgery of the afternoon in the corn
rows.

Hugh's coming had been so obviously voluntary and joyous that the fear she
had entertained, that he would think ill of her as John Hunter's wife, was
set at rest. The old confidence, sympathy, and companionship were
retendered, and the girl met it with her habitual openness. She accepted
the book from his hand and read as asked. Hugh Noland watched her
earnestly, and recalled the things he had been told about her and her
affairs. On more than one occasion he had been told that she had been
neglected, and at the time had put the tale away as foolish farm gossip,
but Doctor Morgan was no fool, and his gossip was usually not only true
but had on this particular occasion fallen out with vehemence and
conviction. As he looked at her he asked himself how any man could neglect
a woman of Elizabeth's sincere qualities. She was so true that the only
indication that he had ever received of even a slight difference of
opinion with her husband had been the accidental one regarding debts. He
remembered a remark of Sadie Hansen's to the effect that John Hunter never
took his wife anywhere, and he remembered that in the four months he had
been in the house he had never heard him offer to do so, and then Hugh
Noland remembered that he had no right to think about it at all. However,
his mind recurred to it in spite of all he could do, and presently he was
immersed in the old consideration. Loyalty must be one of her qualities:
four months he had been in her house and she had never been taken anywhere
except to Nathan's, where he himself had taken her, and she had never
remarked upon it, and she was but twenty-three!

"Twenty-three!" he said under his breath.

"What was it you said?" Elizabeth asked, looking up.

"Nothing," he replied guiltily.

Elizabeth became conscious and embarrassed.

"I'v