. The best possible
proof you can give me of your good wishes is to relinquish any desire
or attempt to see me. I shall have finished my work here in a few
days. I have other troubles, of which you know nothing, and any
meeting with you would only add to a burden which is already as much as
I can bear. To speak of parting is superfluous--we have already
parted. It were idle to dream of a future friendship between people so
widely different in station. Such a friendship, if possible in itself,
would never be tolerated by the lady whom you are to marry, with whom
you drove by my schoolhouse the other day. A gentleman so loyal to his
race and its traditions as you have shown yourself could not be less
faithful to the lady to whom he has lost his heart and his memory in
three short months.

No, Mr. Tryon, our romance is ended, and better so. We could never
have been happy. I have found a work in which I may be of service to
others who have fewer opportunities than mine have been. Leave me in
peace, I beseech you, and I shall soon pass out of your neighborhood as
I have passed out of your life, and hope to pass out of your memory.

Yours very truly,
ROWENA WALDEN.

XXX

AN UNUSUAL HONOR

To Rena's high-strung and sensitive nature, already under very great
tension from her past experience, the ordeal of the next few days was a
severe one. On the one hand, Jeff Wain's infatuation had rapidly
increased, in view of her speedy departure. From Mrs. Tryon's remark
about Wain's wife Amanda, and from things Rena had since learned, she
had every reason to believe that this wife was living, and that Wain
must be aware of the fact. In the light of this knowledge, Wain's
former conduct took on a blacker significance than, upon reflection,
she had charitably clothed it with after the first flush of
indignation. That he had not given up his design to make love to her
was quite apparent, and, with Amanda alive, his attentions, always
offensive since she had gathered their import, became in her eyes the
expression of a villainous purpose, of which she could not speak to
others, and from which she felt safe only so long as she took proper
precautions against it. In a week her school would be over, and then
she would get Elder Johnson, or some one else than Wain, to take her
back to Patesville. True, she might abandon her school and go at once;
but her work would be incomplete, she wou