ss of her surroundings--no schoolmate from her own
town, no relative or friend of the family near by. Even the
compensation of human sympathy was in a measure denied her, for Rena
was too fresh from her prison-house to doubt that sympathy would fail
before the revelation of the secret the consciousness of which
oppressed her at that time like a nightmare. It was not strange that
Rena, thus isolated, should have been prostrated by homesickness for
several weeks after leaving Patesville. When the paroxysm had passed,
there followed a dull pain, which gradually subsided into a resignation
as profound, in its way, as had been her longing for home. She loved,
she suffered, with a quiet intensity of which her outward demeanor gave
no adequate expression. From some ancestral source she had derived a
strain of the passive fatalism by which alone one can submit
uncomplainingly to the inevitable. By the same token, when once a thing
had been decided, it became with her a finality, which only some
extraordinary stress of emotion could disturb. She had acquiesced in
her brother's plan; for her there was no withdrawing; her homesickness
was an incidental thing which must be endured, as patiently as might
be, until time should have brought a measure of relief.

Warwick had made provision for an occasional letter from Patesville, by
leaving with his mother a number of envelopes directed to his address.
She could have her letters written, inclose them in these envelopes,
and deposit them in the post-office with her own hand. Thus the place
of Warwick's residence would remain within her own knowledge, and his
secret would not be placed at the mercy of any wandering Patesvillian
who might perchance go to that part of South Carolina. By this simple
means Rena had kept as closely in touch with her mother as Warwick had
considered prudent; any closer intercourse was not consistent with
their present station in life.

The night after Warwick and Tryon had ridden away, Rena dreamed again
that her mother was ill. Better taught people than she, in regions
more enlightened than the South Carolina of that epoch, are disturbed
at times by dreams. Mis' Molly had a profound faith in them. If God,
in ancient times, had spoken to men in visions of the night, what
easier way could there be for Him to convey his meaning to people of
all ages? Science, which has shattered many an idol and destroyed many
a delusion, has made but slight inroads u