"My feelings on the subject can be of no interest to you," she answered

with chilling decision.

"All right," and he went to the hat-rack to get his muffler and cap,

preparatory to again facing the storm.

The snow had been falling steadily all day. Drifting almost to the

height of the kitchen window, it whirled about the house and beat

against the window panes with a muffled sound that was inexpressibly

dreary to the girl, who felt herself the center of all this pitiful

human contention.

"David, David; where have you been all day, and where are you going

now?" His mother looked at his gray, haggard face and tried to guess

his hidden trouble, the first he had ever kept from her.

"Mother, I am not a child, and you can't expect me to hang about the

stove like a cat, all my life." It was his first harsh word to her and

she shrank before it as if it had been a blow. David, her boy, to

speak to her like that! She turned quickly away to hide the tears, the

first she had ever shed on his account.

"Here, Anna," she said, struggling to recover her composure, "take this

bucket and get it filled for me, please."

The girl reached for her cloak that hung on a peg near the door.

"No, Anna, you shall not go out for water a night like this; it's not

the work for you to do." David had sprung forward and caught the

bucket from her hand and plunged with it into the storm. Kate's quick

eyes caught the expression of David's face--while Mrs. Bartlett only

heard his words. She gave Anna a searching look as she said: "So it is

you whom David loves." At last Kate understood the secret of Anna's

distracted face--and at last the mother understood the secret of her

boy's moodiness--he loved Anna. And her heart was filled with

bitterness and anger at the very thought; she had taken her boy, this

stranger, with whom the tongue of scandal was busy. The kindly,

gentle, old face lost all its sweetness; jealous anger filled it with

ugly lines. Turning to Anna she said: "It would have been better for all of us if we had not taken you in

that day to break up our home with your mischief."

Anna was cut to the quick. "Oh, Mrs. Bartlett, please do not say that;

I will go away as soon as you like, but it is not with my consent that

David has these foolish fancies about me."




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