the creek. He was rushing off, when,
curiously enough, with no other motive than an impulse, he turned, and
saw an almost motionless figure.

Whether he would send for the articles belonging to his father, or visit
Hope Mills in person, risking a sight of Jack Darcy, or whether he would
summon courage enough to ask for his old friend, were matters that Fred
had put off for to-morrow's decision. Why he had wandered here at all,
amazed him now; and he stood quite breathless at the unexpected
apparition, without power to move or speak.

If he had still been in the high tide of prosperity, Jack would have
passed him by silently, but with no rudeness. Something in the bent
head, the pale face, the general melancholy attitude, came home to his
heart,--his fresh, generous, magnanimous heart. He ventured a step
nearer, he put out his hand.

"Fred, old fellow!"

The rich, full voice might have melted any heart. The frank, honest eyes
lighted with wonderful tenderness: there was a glow and earnestness that
could come only from a large, forgiving soul, capable of putting by its
own sense of pain or any past discomfiture.

Fred Lawrence crimsoned to the very edge of his hair, to the farthest
depths of his soul. He would have taken the hand: then he drew back with
a gesture of self-reproach, as if he could tread his past sinful pride
in the dust.

"Let's forget the bygones," the hearty young fellow began, "that is, if
you would like to have it so," drawing back a trifle to give him his
choice as a delicate woman might have done.

"Thank you, Jack," grasping the warm, firm hand in his own pale, cold
one, and raising his soft dark eyes, so near to tears. Just now no other
words would come.

Jack drew the hand through his arm. "I've thought of you so many times,"
he began, as if they had parted the best of friends. "It has been a sad
year for many, doubly so for you."

"Sad indeed. O Jack!"

It was all uttered in the long tremulous swell of voice that tells the
whole story.

"Yes."

With that, their friendship was renewed. Women might have fallen into
each other's arms with expressions of penitence and forgiveness; but
they had said their say, as was characteristic of both.

"Were you coming in?" and Darcy turned back as he asked the question.

"No: I only reached Yerbury an hour or so ago on a little business. Some
remembrance of old time brought me hither."

"I am glad it did. Shall we walk down Main Street? Are