me of that aromatic paper; but open the hall windows
first.'

Charles did as he was ordered, and the wind was soon sweeping through
the wide hall, while Arthur's rooms were filled with an odor like the
sweet incense burned in the old cathedrals.

'I am very giddy and faint,' Arthur said, when Charles came back to him
after his ventilating operation. 'I have looked at the bright snow too
long, and there are a thousand rings of fire dancing before my eyes, and
in every ring I see a blue hood and veil, with waves of hair like
Gretchen's, when she was a child. There is a redder tinge now on
Gretchen's hair, because she is older. Wheel me out there, Charles,
where I can see her.'

Charles obeyed, and moved the light bed-lounge into the library, where
his master could feast his eyes upon the sweet face which knew no
change, but which always, night and day, smiled upon him the same. The
picture had a soothing effect upon Arthur, and he gazed at it now until
it began to fade away and lose itself in the blue hood and veil he had
seen in the sleigh far down the avenue; and when, a few minutes later,
Charles came in to look at him, he found him fast asleep.

Meantime the funeral train had reached the cemetery, where the snow was
piled in great drifts, and where, in a corner of the Tracy lot, they
buried the stranger, with no tear to hallow her grave, and no pang of
regret save that she had ever come there, with the mystery and the doubt
which must always cling to her memory. Frank Tracy's face was very pale
and stern as he held little Jerry in his arms during the committal of
the body to the grave, and then bade her take one last look at the box
which held her mother. But Jerry, who was growing cold and tired, began
to cry, and so Frank took her back to the sleigh, which was driven to
the cottage in the lane. Here she felt at home, and drawing to the fire
the low rocking chair she had appropriated to herself, was soon
supremely happy devouring the ginger cookie which Mrs. Crawford had
given her, and in trying to pronounce English words under Harold's
teaching.

While the children were thus employed, Mr. Tracy was divulging to Mrs.
Crawford the object of his visit. He could hardly explain, he said, why
he was so deeply interested in the child, except it were that her mother
had died on his premises and she seemed to be thrown upon his care.

'I cannot see her go to the poor-house,' he continued, with a trembling
in his voice