rs. Taylor left the room. As the door opened they could hear
Lancy's voice as he conversed with the family, and for the first time it
brought a flush to Dexie's face. She shrank from the thought of meeting
him, but this diffidence was owing more to Elsie's remarks than to any
change in her own feelings.

"Come," said Elsie, at last, "we don't want to sit here all day. Let us go
and find Lancy."

She stepped at once to his side as they entered the room, and gave him a
sisterly embrace, making Dexie's quiet "good morning" seem a cool greeting
in comparison; there seemed a strange restraint between them that neither
had felt before, which forbade any show of feeling on either side. This was
noticed at once by Mrs. Taylor, who was brightening up the fire, and she
said:

"Seems to me you haven't such a warm welcome for your brother as your
sister gives him, yet he has been inquiring very particularly after you."

"He is not my brother, Mrs. Taylor. I do not know how the mistake has been
made, but we are no relation whatever."

"Not your brother! Then who are you, my dear?" smiling at Dexie's blushing
face.

"Lancy, introduce me properly," and Dexie rose to her feet.

Catching the spirit of mischief that shone in her eyes, he stepped quickly
to her side, and with a flourish made the introduction.

"Allow me to make you acquainted with our next-door neighbor, Miss Dexie
Sherwood."

Dexie bowed graciously to the several occupants of the room, who rose to
their feet, and all embarrassment fled at once.

"Next-door neighbors those two may be," was the whispered comment of the
young girls who were stepping back and forth as they prepared the mid-day
meal, "but there is every sign of a closer relationship in the future, if
their looks do not belie them."

But the only sentiment in Dexie's heart was gratitude and love to a Higher
Power. As she turned the leaves of a music-book she had picked up from the
table she passed the book to Lancy, saying in a low tone:

"If I were home, I would like to sit down to the piano and play that."

Lancy glanced at the page, and his eyes told her that he understood, for
the words of the anthem to which Dexie referred began, "Out of the depths
cried I, and thou, O Lord, hast heard."

"Does the owner of these books play?" and Lancy turned to address Mrs.
Taylor, a sudden thought like an inspiration coming to his mind.

"Only a little. Our Susan is wild over music; but our little old p