d the impression, without caring to examine it closely, that
her father would not be displeased at his marrying Cressy, for it would
really amount to that. But here again he was forced to contemplate
what he had always avoided, the possible meaning and result of their
intimacy. In the reckless, thoughtless, extravagant--yet thus far
innocent--indulgence of their mutual passion, he had never spoken of
marriage, nor--and it struck him now with the same incongruous mingling
of relief and uneasiness--had SHE! Perhaps this might have arisen from
some superstitious or sensitive recollection on her part of her previous
engagement to Seth, but he remembered now that they had not even
exchanged the usual vows of eternal constancy. It may seem strange that,
in the half-dozen stolen and rapturous interviews which had taken place
between these young lovers, there had been no suggestion of the future,
nor any of those glowing projects for a united destiny peculiar to their
years and inexperience. They had lived entirely in a blissful present,
with no plans beyond their next rendezvous. In that mysterious and
sudden absorption of each other, not only the past, but the future
seemed to have been forgotten.

These thoughts were passing through his mind the next afternoon to
the prejudice of that calm and studious repose which the deserted
school-house usually superinduced, and which had been so fondly noted
by McKinstry and Uncle Ben. The latter had not arrived for his usual
lesson; it was possible that undue attention had been attracted to his
movements now that his good fortune was known; and the master was alone
save for the occasional swooping incursion of a depredatory jay in
search of crumbs from the children's luncheons, who added apparently
querulous insult to the larcenous act. He regretted Uncle Ben's absence,
as he wanted to know more about his connection with the Harrison attack
and his eventual intentions. Ever since the master emerged from the barn
and regained his hotel under cover of the darkness, he had heard only
the vaguest rumors, and he purposely avoided direct inquiry.

He had been quite prepared for Cressy's absence from school that
morning--indeed in his present vacillating mood he had felt that her
presence would have been irksome and embarrassing; but it struck
him suddenly and unpleasantly that her easy desertion of him at that
critical moment in the barn had not since been followed by the least
sign of anxi