p, and coming down to the
kitchen as usual to light the fire and prepare breakfast, saw a letter
on the table addressed to her, and opening, it read as follows:--

"MY DEAR MARY,--Do not be anxious this morning when you find that
I am gone. I shall not be long away. I have an idea of getting some
work to do, which may be more useful to you and Angus than my poor
attempts at basket-making. At any rate I feel it would be wrong if I
did not try to obtain some better paying employment, of a kind which
I can do at home, so that I may be of greater assistance to you both
when you marry and begin your double housekeeping. Old though I am
and ailing, I want to feel less of a burden and more of a help. You
will not think any the worse of me for wishing this. You have been
so good and charitable to me in my need, that I should not die happy
if I, in my turn, did not make an effort to give you some
substantial proof of gratitude. This is Tuesday morning, and I shall
hope to be home again with you before Sunday. In the meanwhile, do
not worry at all about me, for I feel quite strong enough to do what
I have in my mind. I leave Charlie with you. He is safest and
happiest in your care. Good-bye for a little while, dear, kind
friend, and God bless you!
DAVID."

She read this with amazement and distress, the tears welling up in her
eyes.

"Oh, David!" she exclaimed. "Poor, poor old man! What will he do all by
himself, wandering about the country with no money! It's dreadful! How
could he think of such a thing! He is so weak, too!--he can't possibly
get very far!"

Here a sudden thought struck her, and picking up Charlie, who had
followed her downstairs from her bedroom and was now trotting to and
fro, sniffing the air in a somewhat disconsolate and dubious manner, she
ran out of the house bareheaded, and hurried up to the top of the
"coombe." There she paused, shading her eyes from the sun and looking
all about her. It was a lovely morning, and the sea, calm and sparkling
with sunbeams, shone like a blue glass flecked with gold. The sky was
clear, and the landscape fresh and radiant with the tender green of the
springtime verdure. But everything was quite solitary. Vainly her glance
swept from left to right and from right to left again,--there was no
figure in sight such as the one she sought and half-ex