itter cold. Ice
formed; navigation was over until spring. Anne had heard from Dr. Gaston
and Miss Lois, but not from Rast. For Rast had gone; he had started on
his preliminary journey through the western country, where he proposed
to engage in business enterprises, although their nature remained as yet
vague. The chaplain wrote that a letter addressed to Erastus in her
handwriting had been brought to him the day after the youth's departure,
and that he had sent it to the frontier town which was to be his first
stopping-place. Erastus had written to her the day before his departure,
but the letter had of course gone to Caryl's. Miss Vanhorn, without
doubt, would forward it to her niece. The old man wrote with an effort
to appear cheerful, but he confessed that he missed his two children
sadly. The boys were well, and Angelique was growing pretty. In another
year it would be better that she should be with her sister; it was
somewhat doubtful whether Miss Lois understood the child.

Miss Lois's letter was emphatic, beginning and ending with her opinion
of Miss Vanhorn in the threefold character of grandaunt, Christian, and
woman. She was able to let out her feelings at last, unhindered by the
now-withdrawn allowance. The old bitter resentment against the woman who
had slighted William Douglas found vent, and the characterization was
withering and picturesque. When she had finished the arraignment, trial,
and execution, at least in words, she turned at last to the children;
and here it was evident that her pen paused and went more slowly. The
boys, she hoped (rather as a last resort), were "good-hearted." She had
but little trouble, comparatively, with Tita now; the child was very
attentive to her lessons, and had been over to Pere Michaux at his
hermitage almost every other day. The boys went sometimes; and Erastus
had been kind enough to accompany the children, to see that they were
not drowned. And then, dropping the irksome theme, Miss Lois dipped her
pen in romance, and filled the remainder of her letter with praise of
golden-haired Rast, not so much because she herself loved him, as
because Anne did. For the old maid believed with her whole heart in this
young affection which had sprung into being under her fostering care,
and looked forward to the day when the two should kneel together before
Dr. Gaston in the little fort chapel, to receive the solemn benediction
of the marriage service, as the happiest remaining in h