ng her mind on the subject was short and definitive.

"Law me! what's de use? I's set out to b'liebe de Catechize, an' I'm
gwine to bliebe it,--so!"

While we have been telling you all this about her, she has fastened her
horse, and is swinging leisurely up to the house with a basket on either
arm.

"Good morning, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder. "What brings you so early?"

"Come down 'fore light to sell my chickens an' eggs,--got a lot o' money
for 'em, too. Missy Marvyn she sent Miss Scudder some turkey-eggs, an'
I brought down some o' my doughnuts for de Doctor. Good folks must lib,
you know, as well as wicked ones,"--and Candace gave a hearty, unctuous
laugh. "No reason why Doctors shouldn't hab good tings as well as
sinners, is dere?"--and she shook in great billows, and showed her white
teeth in the _abandon_ of her laugh. "Lor bress ye, honey, chile!" she
said, turning to Mary, "why, ye looks like a new rose, ebery bit! Don't
wonder _somebody_ was allers pryin' an' spyin' about here!"

"How is your Mistress, Candace?" said Mrs. Scudder, by way of changing
the subject.

"Well, porly,--rader porly. When Massa Jim goes, 'pears like takin' de
light right out her eyes. Dat ar' boy trains roun' arter his mudder like
a cosset, he does. Lor', de house seems so still widout him!--can't a
fly scratch his ear but it starts a body. Missy Marvyn she sent down,
an' says, would you an' de Doctor an' Miss Mary please come to tea dis
arternoon."

"Thank your mistress, Candace," said Mrs. Scudder; "Mary and I will
come,--and the Doctor, perhaps," looking at the good man, who had
relapsed into meditation, and was eating his breakfast without taking
note of anything going on. "It will be time enough to tell him of it,"
she said to Mary, "when we have to wake him up to dress; so we won't
disturb him now."

To Mary the prospect of the visit was a pleasant one, for reasons which
she scarce gave a definite form to. Of course, like a good girl, she had
come to a fixed and settled resolution to think of James as little as
possible; but when the path of duty lay directly along scenes and among
people fitted to recall him, it was more agreeable than if it had lain
in another direction. Added to this, a very tender and silent friendship
subsisted between Mrs. Marvyn and Mary; in which, besides similarity of
mind and intellectual pursuits, there was a deep, unspoken element of
sympathy.

Candace watched the light in Mary's eyes with t