but, alas for the restrictions of matter! he was gliding
rapidly away and away, farther from the immediate attainment. Yet was
his tower strengthened wherein he had intrenched himself with his
ideals. The withered rose petals had brought him exaltation of purpose.

In the mountains, July came with unusually sultry heat, yet the rich
pocket of soil, watered by its never failing stream, suffered little
from the drought. Weeds grew apace, and Cassandra had much ado to hold
her cousin Cotton Caswell, easy-going and thriftless, to his task of
keeping the small farm in order.

For a long time now, Cassandra had avoided those moments of far-seeing
and brooding. Had not David said he feared them for her? In these days
of waiting, she dreaded lest they show her something to which she would
rather remain blind. In the evenings, looking over the hilltops from her
rock, visions came to her out of the changing mists, but she put them
from her and calmed her breast with the babe on her bosom, and solaced
her longing by keeping all in readiness for David's return. Perhaps at
any moment, with wind-lifted hair and buoyant smile, he might come up
the laurel path.

For this reason she preferred living in her own cabin home, and, that
she might not be alone at night, Martha Caswell or her brother slept on
a cot in the large cabin room, but Cassandra cared little for their
company. They might come or not as they chose. She was never afraid now
that she was strong again and baby was well.

One evening sitting thus, her babe lying asleep on her knees and her
heart over the sea, something caused her to start from her revery and
look away from the blue distance, toward the cabin. There, a few paces
away, regarding her intently, stalwart and dark, handsome and eager,
stood Frale. Much older he seemed, more reckless he appeared, yet still
a youth in his undisciplined impulse. She sat pale as death, unable to
move, in breathless amazement.

He smiled upon her out of the gathering dusk. For some minutes he had
been regarding her, and the tumult within him had become riotous with
long restraint. He came swiftly forward and, ere she could turn her
head, his arms were about her, and his lips upon hers, and she felt
herself pinioned in her chair--nor, for guarding her baby unhurt by his
vehemence, could she use her hands to hold him from her; nor for the
suffocating beating of her heart could she cry out; neither would her
cry have availed, for t