l experience
with him, or what she thinks is her own personal experience?"

A robin hopped upon the path before her. She watched it for a moment
intently, then lifted her head as the sound of a bell came through
the wood to her. She looked up at the sun, which was slanting towards
evening. She seemed about to speak, but with second thought, moved on
slowly past the mill and towards the Meeting-house. He stepped on beside
her. She kept her eyes fixed in front of her, as though oblivious of his
presence.

"You shall hear me speak. You shall listen to what I have to say, though
it is for the last time," he urged stubbornly. "You think ill of me. Are
you sure you are not pharisaical?"

"I am honest enough to say that which hurts me in the saying. I do not
forget that to believe thee what I think is to take all truth from what
thee said to me last year, and again this spring when the tulips first
came and there was good news from Egypt."

"I said," he rejoined boldly, "that I was happier with you than with any
one else alive. I said that what you thought of me meant more to me than
what any one else in the world thought; and that I say now, and will
always say it."

The old look of pity came into her face. "I am older than thee by two
years," she answered quaintly, "and I know more of real life, though I
have lived always here. I have made the most of the little I have seen;
thee has made little of the much that thee has seen. Thee does not know
the truth concerning thee. Is it not, in truth, vanity which would have
me believe in thee? If thee was happier with me than with any one
alive, why then did thee make choice of a wife even in the days thee was
speaking to me as no man shall ever speak again? Nothing can explain so
base a fact. No, no, no, thee said to me what thee said to others, and
will say again without shame. But--but see, I will forgive; yes, I will
follow thee with good wishes, if thee will promise to help David, whom
thee has ever disliked, as, in the place held by thee, thee can do now.
Will thee offer this one proof, in spite of all else that disproves,
that thee spoke any words of truth to me in the Cloistered House, in
the garden by my father's house, by yonder mill, and hard by the
Meeting-house yonder-near to my sister's grave by the willow-tree? Will
thee do that for me?"

He was about to reply, when there appeared in the path before them Luke
Claridge. His back was upon them, but he heard their