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The old lady sighed; then she said suddenly, looking at the clock above the oak mantelshelf, "It is half-past I expect--"

She broke off as the front door was heard to open and close beyond the hall, and waited, paling a little, as steps sounded on the flags; but the steps went up the stairs outside, and there was silence again

"He has come back," she said "Oh! irl curiously

The old lady bent again over her e I hope he will ride this afternoon Will you go with him?"

"I think not He won't want anyone I know Laurie"

The other looked up at her sideways in a questioning way, and Maggie went on with a kind of slow decisiveness

"He will be queer at lunch Then he will probably ride alone and be late for tea Then to to lunch tomorrow Do you think he'll mind?"

"Who is Mrs Stapleton?"

The old lady hesitated

"She's--she's the wife of Colonel Stapleton She goes in for what I think is called New Thought; at least, so somebody told me last month I'etarian last year; now I believe she's given that up again"

Maggie s teeth

"I know, auntie," she said "No; I shouldn't think Laurie'll , too"

"No,till Thursday"

There fell again one of those pleasant silences that are possible in the country Outside the garden, with the e road, lay in that sweet Septeht and mellow color that seemed to embalm the house in peace Fro of a cock, followed by the liquid chuckle of a pigeon perched so the twisted chimneys And within this room all was equally at peace The sunshine lay on table and polished floor, barred by the mullions of the s, and stained here and there by the little Flelass; while those two figures, so perfectly in place in their serenity and leisure, sat before the open fire-place and contemplated the very unpeaceful element that had just walked upstairs incarnate in a pale, drawn-eyed young man in black