father----" He began to smile, but she lifted a glance as utterly
without fear as without hardihood and said:

"I understand. He must never know it's been done."

"That's more than I meant," he replied, as Fannie Halliday came up. The
two girls went for their wraps.

"March?" said Ravenel, as he and Fair waited to escort them home. "O,
no, he left some time ago with his mother."

On the way to the Halliday cottage Fair said to Barbara:

"I'm glad of the talk we've had."

"You can afford to be so, Mr. Fair. It showed your generosity against
the background of my selfishness."

"Selfishness? Surely it isn't selfish to show a daughter's care and
affection for a father."

By her hand on his arm he felt her shrink at the last word. "I love my
father, yes. But you're making mistakes about me. Let's talk about Miss
Fannie; she'll only be Miss Fannie about two weeks longer. You ought to
stay to see her married, Mr. Fair."

"And you are to be bridesmaid! But I _must_ go to-morrow. I wish my
father and mother could reach here in time on their way home from New
Orleans, but when they get this far your bridal party will have been two
days married and gone."

Barbara mused a moment. "You know, this plan for me to give a year to
study in the North has been as much mine as pop-a's; but pop-a's
entirely responsible for putting me into your father's and mother's care
on the journey. I've been in a state of alarm ever since."

"Really, that's wrong! You're going to be a source of great pleasure to
them. And you'll like them, too, very much. They are interesting in many
ways and good in all, and as travelers they are perfect."

"You give me new courage, Mr. Fair. But"--she spoke more playfully--"I'm
afraid of New England, yet. There's a sort of motherly quality in our
climate that I can't expect to find there. Won't the snow be still on
the ground?"

"Very likely; the higher mountain tops, at least, will be quite
covered."

"Well, I'm glad that doesn't mean what I once thought it did. I thought
the snow in New England covered the mountain tops the same way the
waters covered them in the Deluge."

Fair looked down into his companion's face under the leafy moonlight and
halted in a quick glow of inspiration. "When first you see New England,
Miss Garnet, nature will have been lying for four months in white,
sacramental silence. But presently you will detect a growing change----"

"A stealing out of captivity?"

"Yes!--e