Avice Gray, VIII-X [pp. 234-242]

he; "you expect him home soon, don't you? Your sensitive organization; and her mother, still in the
mother says he wrote to you." agony of her late bereavement, and terrified at the
She gave him a quick glance, but his face told least symptom of danger to her remaining treasure,
her nothing. lost no time in sending for Dr. Wells.
"Yes, I had a letter," she said, shortly. He allayed her fears when he arrived, and soothed
"The doctor wants to see the letter; go and get the little patient into rest and quietude; but he still
it," said her mother. felt sufficient anxiety to induce him, as he had no
She looked with a slight but sudden start at the pressing engagement, to remain until late in the
doctor, and he answered by a steady gaze; she could day. *It was Sunday, and after dinner the house
command her muscles, and not one stirred; but she subsided into even more than the usual Sunday hush
could not rule the telltale blood which ebbed away and calm; man and maid departed on their weekly
and left her very lips colorless. In his calm face holiday, the master of the house retired for his aftershe could see no suspicion; but she knew that if he noon repose, and Mrs. Vanvannick sat in the darkfelt such her aspect could not fail to give it fresh ened chamber where her sick child lay; the doctor,
strength; and she maintained a quiet if defiant de- being thus left to his own devices, and not being inmeanor, and rose and left the room slowly, as if to dclined to sleep, left the house by the back-way and
obey. strolled down to the shore.
She was so long gone that the doctor began to The boat lay as usual among the weeds and
wonder what would be the result of her absence, and rushes, and, by an impulse for which he could never
how she would overcome the difficulty in which he afterward account, Dr. Wells pushed off and paddled
had placed her. Her mother called her twice before across the creek to the other bank. It was from no
she returned. morbid curiosity to visit the scene of the tragedy, for
"I cannot find the letter," she said, as she came he, like others, had been there while the horror was
in and seated herself with perfect composure in a fresh; but, all the same, he moored the boat, slowly
manner that showed she did not intend to move mounted the gentle ascent, and traced the woody
again. "I have either torn or mislaid it, for I have paths, now brown and sear under the summer sun,
looked carefully, and it is not to be found." till he came out on the open space where Stephen
"Carefully!" echoed her mother. "There's no had been found.
care about you. And that letter had his new ad- In other lands, perhaps, a cross might have been
dress in it, too! What are we to do when we write erected, or some memorial placed, to mark the spot
again?" where a life had so suddenly and so fearfully come
"I dare say you will hear again when conven- to an end; but here nothing of the sort had been
ient," said the doctor, significantly; "never mind done, and only the associations of those who knew
not finding the letter for me. I know quite as much the story shed an awe over the place. It seemed to
about it now as I need to know." the doctor that a deeper hush brooded here than else He looked at Dorade as he spoke, but her face where, that the slanting rays of the sun threw a
was marble, and her eyes cast down. more solemn brilliance, and that the leaves rustled
"If ever a man was in a difficult and a painful with a fainter sound. He sighed as he looked round,
position, I am," he said to himself when he was again and thought of all that had gone by and all that
in his gig, and had persuaded the chestnut pony to was yet to come; and, crossing the glade, took the
move on. "If I know the guilty one, as I fear I do, path, or rather the no-path, to the pond. Reaching
how can I ever bring myself to raise the suspicion it with silent tread, and standing in the deep shadow
and set justice on the track? And yet how to save the of a tuft of alder-bushes, he started and drew back
innocent without? And I have so little to go on, and as he caught sight of the figure of a woman seated
there is so little time! I must wait for more light on the farther side.
yet; it is a coward's part to temporize; but I am a He did not need a second glance to assure him
coward, I suppose; I could take off her arm without that it was Dorade; and all the ideas and suspicions
the quiver of a nerve, but how can I do what I must he had tried to stifle leaped up like new-fed flame.
if I guess the truth? That girl will never speak; What was she doing here, in this ill-omened place
she could tell if she would, but-" The doctor alone-a place from which every association, every
sighed and said no more. He thought he knew, or feeling of womanly timidity, would seem to hold her
at least could guess, all; but, like many other guess- back? Dr. Wells shuddered as he thought, "Can
ers, he was very wide of the mark. it be the lash of conscience that drives her back to
the scene of a repented crime?" He did not like
-' + -to hide and watch her, but, impelled partly by fear
for her, and partly by a sense of duty to others, he
CHAPTER IX. waited a few minutes in the shadow of the alders to
S T I L L W A T E R S. see what she would do.
She did nothing. She sat on the ground, her
ON the morning of the next day little Flora Van- hands clasped round her knees, and her eyes fixed
vannick awoke with headache and some fever. Nat- before her, both face and attitude expressive of hopeurally delicate, the grief and excitement of the last less dejection. Released, as she thought, from ob:few weeks had wrought a bad effect on the child's servation, her guarded look had given way, and Dr.
:236
A,PPLE TOZS' JO URAZV,.