The Chief Legatee

is umbrella inside out and drenched him through in an instant, it was to find the house

her arm. "Please excuse all this fuss. Another guest is coming-I have just g

nsom with a good-natured air. "There seem

oor man. I'm afraid he won't like it, but-" Mr. Ransom remained silent. "But," she went on with sudden cheerfulness, "I will make it up in t

rned towards his own door. "The numb

This latter to some perplexed domestic down the hall, who had already called her twice. "I mustn't stand talking here," she

, shut him in, as it were, with the mystery he was there to unravel, but which for some reason, hardly explainable to himself, filled him with such a sense of foreboding that he had moments in which he thought only of escape. But his part must be played and he prepared

, he looked up, rapped o

gers. An early supper and an early bed.

round now, or a dozen hungry, clamoring men to feed all at once, and all with the best cuts, or stairs to run up fifty times a day,

e sound of this ceaseless drip was eerie enough to his strained senses, waiting as he was for an event which might determine the happiness or the misery of his life. He tried to forget it and wrote diligently, putting down words whose meaning he did not stop to consider, so that he had something to show to prying eyes if such should ever glance through his paper

ter filled the outside air. A fall was near, a fall

ry fall swollen by the rain! What was there in this to make his hand shake and cause the deepening night to seem positively hateful to him? With a bang he closed the

y was helped out who, standing one moment in the full glare of the lights thrown upon her from the open door, showed him the face and form he knew so well and loved-yes, loved for all her mystery, as he knew by the wild beating of his heart, and the irresistible impulse he felt to rush down and receive her in his arms, to her great terror doubtless, but to his own boundless satisfaction and delight. But strong as the temptation was, he did not yield to it. Something in her attitude, as she stood there, talking earnestly to the driver, held him spellbound and alert.

nally rattled and swished away towards the stable. "I must

ver the balustrade which extended almost up to his own door. This was better; he could now catch most of the words and sometimes a sentence. They all referred to the sister. "Temper-her own way-deaf-would walk in all the rain and slush.-A strange character-you can't im

ell-like tones; "then I'll tell you what t

s. Deo; "to say nothing of her losing her w

was to show that she remembered the old place and the lane where she used to pick blackberries. You needn't worry about her getting cold.

an instant and so caught one full glimpse of her beloved figure. She was dressed in a long rain-coat and had some sort of modish hat on her head, which, in spite of its simplicity, gave he

oor and look in; say a word of commendation, ask if the key was on h

. I couldn't do that. Oh, she's a dreadful trial, Mrs. Deo; you have a motherly face, and I can tell you that the girl is just eating up my life. If she weren't my very self, deafened by hard usage, and rendered coarse and wilful

sob or two, quickly checked, however, by

t at the new schoolhouse and started to come through the lane. It must be a weltering pool. If I'm dressed

ar her when she enters her own room and will speak to her then-if I dare; I'm not sure that I shall." And the door shut to again, this time with a snap of the lock. Quiet reigned once more in the hall save for Mrs. Deo's muttered exclamati

nt in the hall, or by the sight of an approaching figure up the road. He began to feel odd, and was asking himself what sort of fool-work this was, when a clatter of voice

e first, poor child, or we shall not succeed in g

RT

of the