o hers, and two sorrowful, tear-filled eyes sought her own. It
was little Ruth, who had missed her, and whose loving heart would not
allow her to rest while one she loved suffered.

They walked homeward together, under the starlit canopy, and Clemence
thought that, whatever might come to her, there was one whose pure
affection was wholly her own.

"Here, child, is another letter for you!" said Mrs. Hardyng, coming in
from the village the following day. "You are getting to be a personage
of some importance, I perceive."

"Why, who can it be from?" queried Clemence. "I have no correspondents."

"Perhaps another anonymous communication," said her friend. "Open it and
see, for I am dying of curiosity."

"It is from dear Mrs. Linden," said Clemence. "Here is what she writes:"

"MY ABSENT DARLING: Why have you not written or come to me? By your
long silence I have been led to infer that you may not have
anything pleasant to communicate, and, therefore, fear to disturb
me with the narration of your misfortunes. I have looked for your
return for shelter from the home from which you went forth, like
some weary bird with drooping wing and plaintive song. That home is
always open to you, with its fond welcome. Can you have found new
friends who have grown dearer than her who bade you good-bye with a
prayer in her heart for your future? If you are happy, which God
grant, then I am content. But I have a strong presentiment of evil;
and I fear, I know not what, when my thoughts turn to you. There
was a promise about coming back when tired of your experiment. I
mean to hold my wayward one by that promise. Do you recollect
being accused of too much independence? If I remember correctly,
Mrs. Bailey thought that one of your greatest faults, that needed
speedy correction. I don't want you to exercise it towards your old
friend. Some of these days, if I do not hear from or see her, I
shall come and claim my daughter.

"It can't be possible that you have found anybody in that
out-of-the-way locality to feel particularly interested in--eh,
Clemence? I have sometimes thought that some other more famed
mortal engrossed the affection that belongs, by prior claim, to me.
Don't encourage any of those rustics, for I have somebody here so
infinitely superior to any one whom I ever met before that I have
decided that t