he face of her coldness he carried about
him an air of smiling deference and gallantry.

She finally told him of her determination to go to New York to pursue her
studies until Phil had finished the term of his enlistment in his
regiment, which had been ordered on permanent duty in the West.

He laughed with his eyes at this announcement, blinking the lashes rapidly
without moving his lips. It was a peculiar habit of his when deeply moved
by a sudden thought. It had flashed over him like lightning that she was
trying to get away from him. She would not do that unless she cared.

"When are you going?" he asked quietly.

"Day after to-morrow."

"Then you will give me one afternoon for a sail on the river to say
good-bye and thank you for what you have done for me and mine?"

She hesitated, laughed, and refused.

"To-morrow at four o'clock I'll call for you," he said firmly. "If there's
no wind, we can drift with the tide."

"I will not have time to go."

"Promptly at four," he repeated as he left.

Ben spent hours that night weighing the question of how far he should dare
to speak his love. It had been such an easy thing before. Now it seemed a
question of life and death. Twice the magic words had been on his lips,
and each time something in her manner chilled him into silence.

Was she cold and incapable of love? No; this manner of the North was on
the surface. He knew that deep down within her nature lay banked and
smouldering fires of passion for the one man whose breath could stir it
into flame. He felt this all the keener now that the spell of her
companionship and the sweet intimacy of her daily ministry to him had been
broken. The memory of little movements of her petite figure, the glance of
her warm amber eyes, and the touch of her hand--all had their tongues of
revelation to his eager spirit.

He found her ready at four o'clock.

"You see I decided to go after all," she said.

"Yes, I knew you would," he answered.

She was dressed in a simple suit of navy-blue cloth cut V-shaped at the
throat, showing the graceful lines of her exquisite neck as it melted into
the plump shoulders. She had scorned hoop skirts.

He admired her for this, and yet it made him uneasy. A woman who could
defy an edict of fashion was a new thing under the sun, and it scared
him.

They were seated in the little sailboat now, drifting out with the tide.
It was a perfect day in October, one of those matchless days of Indi