er last visit, "that
circumstances permit you to live in the South, for I am afraid you could
not endure a Northern winter. You are getting along very well now, and
if you will take care of yourself and avoid excitement, you will be
better." He said to himself as she went away: "It's only a matter of
time, but that is true about us all; and a wise physician does as much
good by what he withholds as by what he tells."

Miss Noble had not anticipated any trouble about the school. When
she went away the same committee of white men was in charge that had
controlled the school since it had become part of the public-school
system of the State on the withdrawal of support from the Freedmen's
Bureau. While there had been no formal engagement made for the next
year, when she had last seen the chairman before she went away, he had
remarked that she was looking rather fagged out, had bidden her good-by,
and had hoped to see her much improved when she returned. She had left
her house in the care of the colored woman who lived with her and did
her housework, assuming, of course, that she would take up her work
again in the autumn.

She was much surprised at first, and later alarmed, to find a rival for
her position as teacher of the grammar school. Many of her friends and
pupils had called on her since her return, and she had met a number
of the people at the colored Methodist church, where she taught in the
Sunday-school. She had many friends and supporters, but she soon found
out that her opponent had considerable strength. There had been a time
when she would have withdrawn and left him a clear field, but at
the present moment it was almost a matter of life and death to
her--certainly the matter of earning a living--to secure the
appointment.

The other candidate was a young man who in former years had been one of
Miss Noble's brightest pupils. When he had finished his course in the
grammar school, his parents, with considerable sacrifice, had sent him
to a college for colored youth. He had studied diligently, had worked
industriously during his vacations, sometimes at manual labor, sometimes
teaching a country school, and in due time had been graduated from his
college with honors. He had come home at the end of his school life,
and was very naturally seeking the employment for which he had fitted
himself. He was a "bright" mulatto, with straight hair, an intelligent
face, and a well-set figure. He had acquired some of the ma