their whereabouts, had followed them, reaching the Mountain House
in the morning stage.

"He can spend but one day here," she added, in conclusion, "and
wishing him to see as much as possible of our northern grandeur I
brought him at once to the Falls. Here is your note," and tossing
it into Edith's lap she moved away.

A note from Arthur! How Edith trembled as she held it in her hand,
and with a quick, furtive glance at sightless eyes beside her, she
raised the dainty missive to her lips, feeling a reproachful pang
as she reflected that she was breaking her vow to Richard. Why had
Arthur written to her--she asked herself this question many times,
while Richard, too, asked,

"What news from Florida?" ere she broke the seal and read, not
words of changeless and dark despair, but words of entreaty that
for the sake of Nina, sick, dying Nina, she would come at once to
Florida, for so the crazy girl had willed it, pleading with them
the live-long day to send for Miggie, precious Miggie, with the
bright, black eyes, which looked her into subjection, and the soft
hands which drove the ugly pain away.

"All the summer," Arthur wrote, "she has been failing. The heat
seems to oppress her, and several times I've been on the point of
returning with her to the North, thinking I made a mistake in
bringing her here, but she refuses to leave Sunnybank. Old sights
and familiar places have a soothing effect upon her, and she is
more as she used to be before the great calamity fell upon her.
Her disease is consumption, hereditary like her insanity, and as