n the winters, all by
himself?"

"My grandfather, you mean?" said Mrs. Reverdy,

"I mean your grandfather. I forget you ain't his own; but it makes no
difference. Don't he want you to hum all the year round?"

"I daresay he would like it."

"He's gettin' on in years now. How old is Squire Bowdoin?"

"I don't know," said Mrs. Reverdy. "He's between seventy and eighty,
somewhere."

"You won't have him long with you."

"O, I hope so!" said Mrs. Reverdy lightly, and with the unfailing laugh
which went with everything; "I think grandpa is stronger than I am. I
shouldn't wonder if he'd outlive _me_."

"Still, don't you think it is your duty to stay with him?"

Mrs. Reverdy laughed again. "I suppose we don't always do our duty,"
she said. "It's too cold here in the winter--after October or
September--for me."

"Then it is not your duty to be here," said her sister Euphemia,
somewhat distinctly. But Mrs. Flandin was bound to "free her mind" of
what was upon it.

"I should think the Squire'd want Evan to hum," she went on.

"It would be very nice if Evan could be in two places at once," Mrs.
Reverdy owned conciliatingly.

"Where _is_ Captain Knowlton now?" asked Mrs. Boddington.

"O, he is not a captain yet," said Mrs. Reverdy. "He is only a
lieutenant. I don't know when he'll get any higher than that. He's a
great way off--on the frontier--watching the Indians."

"I should think it was pleasanter work to watch sheep," said Mrs.
Flandin "Don't it make you feel bad to have him away so fur?"

"O, we're accustomed to having him away, you know; Evan has never been
at home; we really don't know him as well as strangers do. We have just
got a letter from him at his new post."

They had got a letter from him! Two bounds Diana's heart made: the
first with a pang of pain that they should have the earliest word; the
next with a pang of joy, at the certainty that hers must be lying in
the post office for her. The blood flowed and ebbed in her veins with
the violent action of extreme excitement. Yet nature did for this girl
what only the practice and training of society do for others; she gave
no outward sign. Her head was not lifted from her work; the colour of
her cheek did not change; and when a moment after she found Miss
Masters at her side, and heard her speaking, Diana looked and answered
with the utmost seeming composure.

"I've been trying ever since you came to get round to you," Gertrude
whispered. "I'm so