hat Edward calls a screed," said Molly; "there
wasn't a thing about war in it."

Unity stirred the fire, making the sparks go up chimney. "Five pages
about Massanutton in her autumn robes, and a sonnet to the Shenandoah! I
like Edward."

At ten o'clock Cousin William rode away. The Greenwood women had
prayers, and then, linked together, they went up the broad, old shallow
stairs to the gallery above, and kissed one another good-night.

In her own room Judith laid pine knots upon the brands. Up flared the
light, and reddened all the pleasant chamber. She unclad herself,
slipped on her dressing-gown, brushed and braided her dusky hair,
rippling, long and thick, then fed again the fire, took letters from her
rosewood box, and in the light from the hearth read them for the
thousandth time. There was none from Richard Cleave after July, none,
none! Sitting in a low chair that had been her mother's, she bowed
herself over the June-time letters, over the May-time letters. There had
been but two months of bliss, two months! She read them again, although
she had them all by heart; she held her hand as though it held a pen and
traced the words so that she might feel, "Here and so, his hand rested";
she put the paper to her cheek, against her lips; she slipped to her
knees, laid her arms along the seat of the chair and her head upon them,
and prayed. "O God! my lover hast Thou put far from me.--O God! my lover
hast Thou put far from me."

She knelt there long; but at last she rose, laid the letters in the box,
and took from another compartment Margaret Cleave's. These were since
July, a letter every fortnight. Judith read again the later ones, the
ones of the late summer. "Dear child--dearest child, I cannot tell you!
Only be forever sure that wherever he is, at Three Oaks or elsewhere, he
loves you, loves you! No; I do not know that his is the course that I
should take, but then women are different. I do not think I would ever
think of pride or of the world and the world's opinion. If you cried to
me I would go, and the world should not hold me back. But men have been
trained to uphold that kind of pride. I did not think that Richard had
it, but I see now all his father in him. Darling child, I do not think
that it will last, but just now, oh, just now, you must possess your
heart in patience!"

The words blurred before Judith's eyes. She sunk her head upon her
knees. "Possess my heart in patience--Possess my heart in patien