pun carpet covered the floor. A
small bookcase stood in the corner. The other furniture consisted of
two chairs, a small table, a bureau with a mirror, and a large
wardrobe. It was in this last that Betty kept the gowns which she
had brought from Philadelphia, and which were the wonder of all the
girls in the village.

"I wonder why Eb looked so closely at me," mused Betty, as she
slipped on her little moccasins. "Usually he is not anxious to have
me go so far from the fort; and now he seemed to think I would enjoy
this dance to-night. I wonder what Bessie has been telling him."

Betty threw some wood on the smouldering fire in the little stone
grate and sat down to think. Like every one who has a humiliating
secret, Betty was eternally suspicious and feared the very walls
would guess it. Swift as light came the thought that her brother and
his wife had suspected her secret and had been talking about her,
perhaps pitying her. With this thought came the fear that if she had
betrayed herself to the Colonel's wife she might have done so to
others. The consciousness that this might well be true and that even
now the girls might be talking and laughing at her caused her
exceeding shame and bitterness.

Many weeks had passed since that last night that Betty and Alfred
Clarke had been together.

In due time Col. Zane's men returned and Betty learned from Jonathan
that Alfred had left them at Ft. Pitt, saying he was going south to
his old home. At first she had expected some word from Alfred, a
letter, or if not that, surely an apology for his conduct on that
last evening they had been together. But Jonathan brought her no
word, and after hoping against hope and wearing away the long days
looking for a letter that never came, she ceased to hope and plunged
into despair.

The last few months had changed her life; changed it as only
constant thinking, and suffering that must be hidden from the world,
can change the life of a young girl. She had been so intent on her
own thoughts, so deep in her dreams that she had taken no heed of
other people. She did not know that those who loved her were always
thinking of her welfare and would naturally see even a slight change
in her. With a sudden shock of surprise and pain she realized that
to-day for the first time in a month she had played with the boys.
Sammy had asked her why she did not laugh any more. Now she
understood the mad antics of Tige that morning; Madcap's whinney of