n followed by a cold wave,
and upon Farwell's hearth a fire crackled cheerily.

* * * * *

"And so, you see, I cannot go back to my father's house."

Farwell bent his head over his folded arms.

"But Mrs. McAdam will take you in, Priscilla. After things calm down and
the truth is accepted, your people will forgive and forget. You poor
child!"

Priscilla closed her lips sharply. Her eyes were very luminous, very
tender, as they rested upon Farwell, but her heart knew no pity for her
father.

"How old one grows, Master Farwell, in--a night," she said with a quiver
in her voice. "I went happily away with Jerry-Jo, quite, quite a girl,
only yesterday. I had the feeling of a child trying to make believe I was
a woman. I wanted to show my father he could no longer control me as he
always had before. I--I wanted to have my way, and then my way brought me
to--those black hours of horror when something in me died forever and
something new was born. And how strange, Master Farwell, that when I
could think at all clear--you stood out as my only friend. I seemed to
know how it would be with my father and my poor mother. My father has
always expected evil of me, and something in me seemed ever to work
against the good of me, to give him cause for believing me wrong. But
you saw the good, my friend, and to you I come--a woman, now. I do not
know the language of what I feel here"--she pressed her hands to her
heart--"but I feel sure you will understand. I cannot stay in Kenmore!
I do not want to. Always I have wanted to have a bigger place, a larger
opportunity, and even if Kenmore would take me, I will not have Kenmore!
Somehow I feel as if I had never belonged here, really. You do not belong
here. Oh, Master Farwell, can you not come, too?"

As she spoke, the old, weary look passed for an instant from her eyes;
she was a child, daring, yet fearful! Ready to go forward into the dark,
but pleading for a trusted hand to hold. And Farwell, who, could she have
known, was clinging more to her than she to him, almost groaned the one
word:

"No!"

"Why, oh, why, Mr. Farwell? Like father and daughter we could make our
way. I think I have never known what a father might be, but you would
show me now in my great need."

"Hush!" Farwell's eyes held hers commandingly, entreatingly. "You must
hear what I have to say. Why do you think I have stayed in Kenmore? Why
I _must_ stay? Have you thought?"

"No