land? And are you really going back
there?" And she fixed her cold green eyes upon the young man's face.

"Oh, yes, I am going back again, like the bad penny," replied Master
Raymond smiling.

"How soon?"

"Oh, I cannot say exactly. Perhaps the Boston gentlemen may be so
fascinating that they will detain me longer than I have planned."

"Is it because the Salem gentlewomen are so fascinating that you have
remained here? We feel quite complimented in the village by the length
of your visit."

"Yes, I have found the Salem gentlewomen among the most charming of
their sex. But you have not told me what I shall send you from London
when I return?"

"Oh, I leave that entirely with you, and to your own good taste. Perhaps
by the time you get back to London, you will not wish to send me
anything."

"I cannot imagine such a case. But I shall endeavor, as you leave it all
to me, to find something pretty and appropriate; something suited to the
most gifted person, among men and women, that I have found in the New
World."

Mistress Putnam's face colored with evident pleasure--even she was not
averse to a compliment of this kind; knowing, as she did, that she had
a wonderful intellectual capacity for planning and scheming. In fact if
she had possessed as large a heart as brain, she would have been a very
noble and even wonderful woman. Master Raymond thought he had told no
falsehood in calling her the "most gifted"--he considered her so in
certain directions.

And so they parted--the last words of Mistress Putnam being, the young
man thought, very significant ones.

"I would not," she said in a light, but still impressive manner, "if I
were you, stay a very long time in Boston. There is, I think, something
dangerous to the health of strangers in the air of that town, of late.
It would be a very great pity for you to catch one of our deadly fevers,
and never be able to return to your home and friends. Take my advice
now--it is honest and well meant--and do not linger long in the
dangerous air of Boston."

Thanking her for her solicitude as to his health, Master Raymond shook
her thin hand and departed. But all the ride back to Joseph Putnam's, he
was thinking over those last words.

What was their real meaning? What could they mean but this? "You are
going to Boston to try to save Dulcibel Burton. I do not want to hurt
you; but I may be compelled to do it. Leave Boston as soon as you can,
and spare me the necessity t