doing. She could not tell whether he
had gone back to skirt the house and go on by a more roundabout way or
was waiting for an opportunity to descend unobserved. Some time
afterwards she heard the rolling of a stone on the hill-path and knew
that he must have retraced his steps to the grove. She thought that
there was no path down that way and was unreasonably glad for--she did
not know what. Archie had observed her distraction and remarked,--

"Must be one of the workmen sneaking about up there. They are all over
the place, thick as flies. There's one has built himself a shack on the
other side of the hill and worn a path down here across the
terrace--cheeky rascal. I'll tell Ferguson to smoke him out!"

Adelle said nothing, but she was sure that Ferguson would never execute
that order.

XXXVIII

The next morning Adelle went straight to the terrace wall from her room
where she had her coffee. All she had to do was to step out of the
French window and around the corner of the house, for she had not yet
moved to the rooms designed for her in the other wing. This morning she
wished to know surely whether the mason had gone off on his spree or had
really turned back as she thought he had the night before. And there he
was on the job, sure enough! Upon her approach, he looked up and rumpled
his hat over his head, which was his shamefaced method of saluting a
lady. He still looked somewhat stormy, but there were no traces of
debauch in his eyes, and he was tossing in his mortar with a fine swing,
and handling the heavy stones as if they were loaves of bread.

"Good-morning, Mr. Clark," was all that Adelle said, and started to go
on.

But the mason called out,--

"Say!" and throwing down his trowel he hunted for something in his hip
pocket. "You was asking me about that town in the East--Alton. Well, I
found this after you had gone."

He produced a tattered package of what seemed to be old letters,
yellowed with age and torn at the corners, and handed them up to Adelle.

"They were grandfather's and mother always kep' 'em; I don't know why.
When she died one of my sisters giv' em to me. I been totin' 'em 'round
in my trunk ever since. They're kind of dirty and spotted," he
apologized for their condition. "But they were pretty old, I guess, when
I got 'em, and they ain't had much care since.... Last night after you
were up there I got 'em out of the trunk and tried to read 'em. There's
one there from Alton-