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book on knee, close beside her, that her own child seeain

Audrey thanked her and kissed her, and hat she was given to wear,

nor thought how her beauty was enhanced If others saw it, if the wonder

grehat it fed on, if she was talked of, written of, pledged, and

lauded by a frank and susceptible people, she knew of all this little

enough, and for what she knew cared not at all Her days went dreaue and unmarked as desert

sands What was real was a past that was not hers, and those dead woave life and splendor

There were visitors to whom she was not denied Darden ca's sunny parlor, and talked to his so room,--discursively, of men and

parochial affairs and his own unmerited woes Audrey sat and heard hiarden without theWhen he lifted froure, and took his stained old hat and heavy

cane, Audrey rose also, curtsied, and sent her duty to Mistress Deborah,

but she asked no questions as to that past home of hers It seemed not to

interest her that the creek was frozen so hard that one could walk upon it

to Fair View, or that the hbor, and meant to plant it with Oronoko Only when he told her that

the little wood--the wood that she had called her oas being cleared,

and that all day could be heard the falling of the trees, did she lift

startled eyes and draw a breath like a y brows, shook his head, and went his way to his favorite

ordinary, rum, and a hand at cards