ulate cry and ran to her room. Her heart
was throbbing. What could she do? She felt that if she looked once
into her lover's eyes she would have no strength. How dared she
allow herself to be so weak! Yet she knew this was the end. She
could deceive him no longer. For she felt a stir in her heart,
stronger than all, beyond all resistance, an exquisite agony, the
sweet, blind, tumultuous exultation of the woman who loves and is
loved.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Bess, what do you think?" said Col. Zane, going into the kitchen
next morning, after he had returned from the pasture. "Clarke just
came over and asked for Betty. I called her. She came down looking
as sweet and cool as one of the lilies out by the spring. She said:
'Why, Mr. Clarke, you are almost a stranger. I am pleased to see
you. Indeed, we are all very glad to know you have recovered from
your severe burns.' She went on talking like that for all the world
like a girl who didn't care a snap for him. And she knows as well as
I do. Not only that, she has been actually breaking her heart over
him all these months. How did she do it? Oh, you women beat me all
hollow!"

"Would you expect Betty to fall into his arms?" asked the Colonel's
worthy spouse, indignantly.

"Not exactly. But she was too cool, too friendly. Poor Alfred looked
as if he hadn't slept. He was nervous and scared to death. When
Betty ran up stairs I put a bug in Alfred's ear. He'll be all right
now, if he follows my advice."

"Humph! What did Colonel Ebenezer Zane tell him?" asked Bessie, in
disgust.

"Oh, not much. I simply told him not to lose his nerve; that a woman
never meant 'no'; that she often says it only to be made say 'yes.'
And I ended up with telling him if she got a little skittish, as
thoroughbreds do sometimes, to try a strong arm. That was my way."

"Col. Zane, if my memory does not fail me, you were as humble and
beseeching as the proudest girl could desire."

"I beseeching? Never!"

"I hope Alfred's wooing may go well. I like him very much. But I'm
afraid. Betty has such a spirit that it is quite likely she will
refuse him for no other reason than that he built his cabin before
he asked her."

"Nonsense. He asked her long ago. Never fear, Bess, my sister will
come back as meek as a lamb."

Meanwhile Betty and Alfred were strolling down the familiar path
toward the river. The October air was fresh with a suspicion of
frost. The clear notes of a hun