delight in itself. Their mutual enjoyment of each other's society had been
growing from day to day, and she, more truly than he, had shrunk from the
presence of another as an unwelcome intrusion. Conscious of her secret,
Jane's prying eyes were already beginning to irritate her nerves. Never had
she seen a human face that so completely embodied her idea of inquisitiveness
as the uncanny visage of this child. She saw that she would be watched with a
tireless vigilance. Her recoil, however, was not so much a matter of
conscious reasoning and perception as it was an instinctive feeling of
repulsion caused by the unfortunate child. It was the same old story. Jane
always put the women of a household on pins and needles just as her mother
exasperated the men. Alida had to struggle hard during a comparatively silent
hour to fight down the hope that Holcroft would not listen to Jane's and her
own request.

As she stepped quickly and lightly about in her preparations for dinner, the
girl watched her intently. At last she gave voice to her thoughts and said,
"If mother'd only worked round smart as you, p'raps she'd hooked him 'stid er
you."

Alida's only reply was a slight frown, for the remark suggested disagreeable
images and fancies. "Oh, how can I endure it?" she sighed. She determined to
let Jane plead her own cause at first, thinking that perhaps this would be the
safest way. If necessary, she would use her influence against a hostile
decision, let it cost in discomfort what it might.

At a few moments before twelve the farmer came briskly toward the house, and
was evidently in the best of spirits. When he entered and saw Jane, his
countenance indicated so much dismay that Alida could scarcely repress a
smile. The child rose and stood before him like a culprit awaiting sentence.
She winked hard to keep the tears back, for there was no welcome in his