bed in the cares of housekeeping, knew nothing of it; but daily, on
one pretext or another, they were together. Whether Erastus was
interested I have no means of knowing; but that Tita is now extremely
pretty in a certain style, and that she was absorbed in him, we could
all see. It was not our affair; yet we might have felt called upon to
make it ours if it had not been for Pere Michaux. He was her constant
guardian.

"Erastus went away yesterday in advance of the mail-train. He bade us
all good-by, and I am positive that he had no plan, not even a suspicion
of what was to follow. We have a new mail-carrier this winter, Denis
being confined to his cabin with rheumatism. Tita must have slipped away
unperceived, and joined this man at dusk on the ice a mile or two below
the island; her track was found this morning. Erastus expected to join
the mail-train to-day, and she knew it, of course; the probability is,
therefore, that they are now together. It seems hardly credible that so
young a head could have arranged its plans so deftly; yet it is
certainly true that, even if Rast wished to bring her back, he could not
do so immediately, not until the up-train passed them. Pere Michaux
started after them this morning, travelling in his own sledge. He thinks
(it is better that you should know it, Anne) that Erastus _is_ fond of
Tita, and that only his engagement to you has held him back. Now that
the step has been taken, he has no real doubt but that Rast himself will
wish to marry her, and without delay.

"All this will seem very strange to you, my dear child; but I trust it
will not be so hard a blow as Miss Hinsdale apprehends. Pere Michaux
told me this morning in so many words: 'Anne has never loved the boy
with anything more than the affection of childhood. It will be for her a
release.' He was convinced of this, and went off on his journey with
what looked very much like gladness. I hope, with all my heart, that he
is right." Then, with a few more words of kindly friendship, the letter
ended.

The other envelope bore the rude pen-and-ink postmark of a Northwestern
lumber settlement, where travellers coming down, from the North in the
winter over the ice and snow met the pioneer railway, which had pushed
its track to that point before the blockade of the cold began.

Tita's letter:

"DEEREST SISTER,--You will not I am sure blaime your little Tita for
following the impulse of her _hart_. Since you were hear I have gro