ause of two
letters she pulled from her pocket and re-read in the pauses of her
skating.

The first was from her mother at Wroote, and told her that to-day or
to-morrow her father would be arriving at Kelstein with her sister
Patty. Hetty had been expecting this for some weeks. At Christmas
(it was now mid-January) the Granthams had written praising her, and
this had given Mr. Wesley the notion of proffering yet another of his
daughters. Two days after receiving the letter he had ridden over to
Kelstein with the proposal. Patty was the one chosen (Hetty could
guess why), and poor Patty knew nothing of it at the time: but Mrs.
Grantham had accepted almost effusively, and she was to come.
In what capacity? Hetty wondered. She herself taught the children,
and she could think of no other post in the household not absolutely
menial. Was it selfish of her to be so glad? For one thing Patty had
fewer whimsies than the rest of her sisters and, likely enough, would
accept her lot as a matter of course. She seldom wept or grumbled:
indeed Hetty, before now, had found her patience irritating. But to
have Patty's company now seemed the most delightful thing in the
world; to fling her arms around somebody who came from home!

The most delightful? Hetty turned to the second letter--and with
that looked up swiftly as her ear caught the ringing sound of skates,
and a young man descended, as it were, out of the sun's disc and came
flying down the long alley on its ray. She put out both hands.
He swooped around her in a long curve and caught them and kissed her
as he came to a standstill, panting, with a flush on each handsome
cheek.

"Hetty!"

No answer to this but a sound like a coo of rapture. He is, as we
should think, a personable young fellow, frank, and taking to the
eye, though his easy air of mastery provokes another look at Hetty,
who is worth ten of him. But to her he is a young god above whom the
stars dance. Splendid creature though she be, she must comply with
her sex which commands her to be passive, to be loved. With his arm
about her she shuts her eyes and drinks delicious weakness; with a
sense of sinking through space supported by that arm--not wholly
relying on him as yet, but holding her own strength in reserve, if he
should fail her.

"I have raced."

She laughed. "I bargained for that. We have so little time!"

"How long?"

"Mrs. Grantham expects me back in an hour at latest. Father and