ned off the water and went back to
bed--not to sleep--for she had too much need to think.

Had the minister in that pulpit recognized her, as she had certainly
recognized him? She hoped not. She believed not. As soon as she had
heard the voice--the voice that had been silent for her so many
years--she had impulsively looked up. And she had seen him! A specter
from the past--a specter from the grave! But his eyes were fixed upon
the book from which he was reading, and she quickly dropped her head
before he could raise them. No; he had not seen her. But oh! if she had
heard his name before she had gone to hear him preach, nothing on earth
would ever have induced her to go into the church. But she had not heard
his name at all. She had heard of him only as the Dean of Olivet. He was
not a dean in those far-off days when she saw him last; only a poor
curate of whose stinted household she had grown sick and tired. But he
was now Dean of Olivet! He had come to make a tour of the United States.
Should she have the mischance to meet him again? Would he go up to West
Point for the exercises at the military academy? But of course he
would! It was so convenient to do so. West Point was so near and easy to
see. The trip up the Hudson was so delightful at this season of the
year. And the dean was bound to see everything worth seeing. And what
was better worth seeing by a foreigner than the exercises at our
celebrated military academy? What should she do to avoid meeting, face
to face, this terrible phantom from the grave of her dead past?

She could make no excuse for remaining in New York while her party went
up to West Point--make no excuse, that is, which would not also make
trouble. And it was her policy never to do that. She thought and thought
until she had nearly given herself the headache which before she had
only feigned. At length she decided on this course: To go to West Point
with her party, and as soon as they should arrive to get up a return of
her neuralgic headache, as her excuse for keeping her room at the hotel
and absenting herself from the exercises at the academy.

As soon as she had formed this resolution she got up, opened one of the
windows, washed and dressed herself and went out into the parlor.

She entered softly.

Old Aaron Rockharrt was sound asleep in his big arm chair.

Cora was seated at the table engaged in reading. She arose to receive
the invalid.

"Are you better? Are you sure you are able