rest you can. I can easily keep awake, and promise to call you
whenever you are needed.'

"'Nancy,' her husband added, 'Miss Alden is right. I see by the way
she takes hold that she'll do everything, and you're jest beat out.'
So between us we had our way.

"'Bless you, miss,' said the man, trying to smile in a way that almost
made me cry, 'I'm as handy as a woman 'bout a kitchen;' and he soon
proved that he was handier than I could have been, for in a few
minutes he pulled up from the well a pail, took out a dressed chicken,
and broiled it to perfection. I made his wife eat some of it, and
saved a little of the breast for poor Tilly, as they call her."

"Did you take any yourself?" interrupted Graydon.

"Oh, yes, indeed! I'm one of those prosaic creatures whose appetite
never fails. If the world were coming to an end to-day I should insist
on having my breakfast."

"Madge," said Graydon, ruefully, "I might as well tell you, for I'm
sure to be found out: I once called you 'lackadaisical.'"

"Oh, I knew that over two years ago! What's more, you were right."

"No; I was not right," he answered, positively. "I should have
recognized the possibilities of your nature then. I did in regard to
your beauty, but not those higher qualities which bid fair to make you
my patron saint."

"Oh, hush, Graydon. Such words only pain me. I don't want your
compliments, and if any man made a patron saint of me I should be so
exasperated that I should probably box his ears. Let us stick to what
is simple, natural, and true, in all our talk."

"You may say what you please, Madge, I see it more clearly every day,
and reproach myself that I did not understand you. I was content to
amuse and pet you, and you naturally did not think me capable of doing
anything more. You went away alone to make as brave a fight as was
ever battled out in this world, and I had no part in helping you.
Mr. and Mrs. Wayland were worth a wilderness of superficial
society-fellows like me. I now know why you did not care to correspond
with me while making your noble effort."

[Illustration: HER LIPS WERE SLIGHTLY PARTED; HER POSE, GRACE ITSELF.]

"Truly, Graydon, your memory and penetration are phenomenal."

"You may disclaim out of kindness now, but I know I am right. You make
my life appear shallow and trivial. What have I done in the last two
years but attend carefully, from habit, to the details of business,
and then amuse myself? And when I wrote I m