let it fall again, in effect, for he quitted all troublesome
subjects, and sat down by her side; not loosing his hold of her,
indeed, nor taking his eyes from her, but in the gravity of his own
deep happiness there was not much to disturb her quiet.

"I sent you a telegraphic despatch this morning to Pattaquasset, dear
Faith,--I did not mean to take you quite by surprise. And my stopping
anywhere short of that was merely because the arrangement of trains
forced me to lose an hour here on the way. I thought it lost."

"It hasn't proved so."

"There was such a doubt of my being in time for this steamer, that I
would not even speak of it. Faith, I have not often heard such music as
the swash of the water about her paddle-wheels as we set off."

"Didn't you hear the swash of her paddle-wheels as you came in?" said
Faith merrily.

"No!" The wistful gladness of her eye was a pretty commentary.

"Is Miss Reason in full activity yet?" said Mr. Linden smiling,--_his_
comment.

"She has had no interruption, you know, for a great while."

"Take care of her, Faith,--she has a great deal of work before her."
The look that answered this was a little conscious, but shewed no fear.

There was nothing very unreasonable in the face that bent over hers;
the eyes with their deep look, lit up now and then with flashes of
different feelings; the mouth wearing its sweet changeable expression.
A little browner than usual, from the voyage,--a little thinner,
perhaps, with hard work; Mr. Linden still looked remarkably well and
like himself; though Faith felt that nameless change--that mingling of
real and unreal, of friend and stranger, which a long absence always
brings. One minute he was himself, as he had been in
Pattaquasset,--giving her lessons, riding with her, reading to her,
going off to school with one of Mrs. Stoutenburgh's white roses. The
next--he was a gentleman just arrived from Europe!--from whom she could
not get away. Perhaps the last impression was the most remarkable. But
in spite of this, Faith was herself, every inch of her; with the
exception of that one little difference which Mr. Linden had pointed
out and which was not to be denied.

Some time had passed, when Faith felt Pet's little hand come round her
neck--the other was round Mr. Linden. Faith's start was instant;
springing up she went to the window where behind the curtain lay the
work her hand had dropped. Faith gathered it up. She would have put
that mu