all bright an' pleasant enough, they say, filled with fine
clothes an' the names of strange places, but a gentleman who met
her somewhar over thar wrote Fletcher that her husband used her
like a dumb brute."

Christopher started and looked up inquiringly.

"Have you heard anything about that, Jim?" he asked in a queer
voice.

"Nothin' more. Fletcher told me he had written to her to come
home, but she answered that she would stick to Wyndham for better
or for worse. It's a great pity--the marriage promised so well,
too."

"Oh, the gal's got a big heart; I could tell it from her eyes,"
said old Jacob. "When you see those dark, solemn eyes, lookin'
out of a pale, peaked face, it means thar's a heart behind 'em,
an' a heart that bodes trouble some day, whether it be in man or
woman."

Christopher passed his hand across his brow and stood staring
vacantly at the smouldering logs. He could not tell whether the
news saddened or rejoiced him, but, at least, it brought Maria's
image vividly before his eyes. The spell of her presence was over
him again, and he felt, as he had felt on that last evening, the
mysterious attraction of her womanhood. So intense was the
visionary appeal that it had for the moment almost the effect of
hallucination; it was as if she still entreated him across all
the distance. The brooding habit of his mind had undoubtedly done