I--"

"I know better. She fell in a dead faint as soon as she got to her
room. I undressed her an' put 'er to bed; but something is wrong. She
is out of her head, but she keeps moaning about you, and saying you are
going away. Are you?"

"I thought of it, but I won't. I'll stay if--if you think I ought.
I'll do anything, Mrs. Floyd--anything you wish."

"Well, don't go off. She'll not live a week if you do. Spare her--she
is all I have left on earth. Think, think how she has suffered. She
has not been well since the night she fainted in the blacksmith's shop
an' lay so long on the cold ground--that was all for your sake, too."

"I know that, Mrs. Floyd," he said. "I'll stay. Tell her that--tell
her I'm coming to see her. Can I see her to-night?"

The old woman hesitated.

"No, she's--she's in bed; but I'll tell her what you said, though. It
will do her good. I'm glad I came to see you. I knew you loved her;
you couldn't help it. She has been so good to you, and no woman ever
loved a man more. When you are married you will both be happy. You'll
wonder then how you could be so silly."

"I know I have been a fool." He took her hand and pressed it, almost
affectionately. "Take care of her, Mrs. Floyd; don't let her be sick."

She turned to leave him. "She'll be well in the morning, I hope; don't
worry. She will get all right when she's had a rest and a night's
sleep. Now, let me walk on alone; the people talk so much in this
place."

He stopped behind a clump of sycamore bushes and watched her disappear
in the gloom. He saw her when she went through the light at the store,
and again as she passed under the lamp at the hotel. He followed
slowly. He passed the hotel and looked into the wide hall, but saw no
one.

A lane led from the street to an open lot behind the hotel. He
remembered that Harriet's room looked out that way, and, hardly knowing
why he did so, he walked down the lane till he could see her window.
There was a light in the room. For several minutes he stood gazing at
the window, feeling his feet sink into the marshy soil. He wondered
how he could pass the long hours of the night without speaking to her.
He had just resolved that he would go to the hotel and implore Mrs.
Floyd to let him see Harriet if only for a moment, when he noticed a
shadow on the wall of the room. It looked like some one sitting at a
table. He decided that it must be Mrs. Floyd watching by Harriet