ngs for Faith's sake,--far more than
the latter did for herself, any spectator would have said. Faith's
wheel never went faster or slower, her thread never broke, her colour
never came, her eyes were never uplifted with sudden interest, all the
time these discussions respecting Mr. Nolan's return were going on. But
Lois, after the hint given by Prudence, had found a clue to many a sigh
and look of despairing sorrow, even without the help of Nattee's
improvised songs, in which, under strange allegories, the helpless love
of her favourite was told to ears heedless of all meaning, except those
of the tender-hearted and sympathetic Lois. Occasionally, she heard a
strange chant of the old Indian woman's--half in her own language, half
in broken English--droned over some simmering pipkin, from which the
smell was, to say the least, unearthly. Once, on perceiving this odour
in the keeping-room, Grace Hickson suddenly exclaimed:

'Nattee is at her heathen ways again; we shall have some mischief
unless she is stayed.'

But Faith, moving quicker than ordinary, said something about putting a
stop to it, and so forestalled her mother's evident intention of going
into the kitchen. Faith shut the door between the two rooms, and
entered upon some remonstrance with Nattee; but no one could hear the
words used. Faith and Nattee seemed more bound together by love and
common interest, than any other two among the self-contained
individuals comprising this household. Lois sometimes felt as if her
presence as a third interrupted some confidential talk between her
cousin and the old servant. And yet she was fond of Faith, and could
almost think that Faith liked her more than she did either mother,
brother, or sister; for the first two were indifferent as to any
unspoken feelings, while Prudence delighted in discovering them only to
make an amusement to herself out of them.

One day Lois was sitting by herself at her sewing table, while Faith
and Nattee were holding one of the secret conclaves from which Lois
felt herself to be tacitly excluded, when the outer door opened, and a
tall, pale young man, in the strict professional habit of a minister,
entered. Lois sprang up with a smile and a look of welcome for Faith's
sake, for this must be the Mr. Nolan whose name had been on the tongue
of every one for days, and who was, as Lois knew, expected to arrive
the day before.

He seemed half surprised at the glad alacrity with which he was
rec