e could, her short fleece of golden hair flying. She wrapped her short skirts about her, and wormed through the barbed-wire fence which skirted the field-the boy had l

" sai

ack and shoulders, and uttered an inarticu

said sh

isclosed a flushed, scowli

you want, any

't you, instead of my father?" inquired M

llaston, crossly; "all a woman thinks

g for you to live at home with her, and buy her

oy, and he fairly dug his flushed

al younger than fa

more'n forty cents, and I don't believe that would buy much o

dea of a diamond ring. Her

will ever give her a diamond

d Wollaston. "Where did she get it if he

felt

he school-house, correcting exercises. Why don't you get right u

imself indetermina

ong," ur

slowly. His face

and better looking than fathe

although she looked a child, at that moment he looked younger. Both of his br

ng," urge

rl across the field. They went down the road until they came to the school-hou

in a recitation-room, bending over a desk. She l

you, dear?

e sparkle of a diamond on the third finger o

she said, indicating Wolla

o stood before her like a culprit, blushing an

Wollaston?" she a

ould have me?" said Wollaston, a

at him in amazement;

do not quite understand you. What d

" burst fo

indignation, the teacher's lips were twitching, and it took a good

an absurd parody on a glance of a man under similar circumstances, and

alize it, but it was really a cruel thing

oung and I am too old. You had better wait a

the room. Maria lingered, in the vain hope that she mig

r than father, and he's

me blush

tle thing, then yo

She became still more t

, when things go wrong," said

only laug

ittle darlin

disposition, his mother told my

lome's laughter, although she tr

aid she. "And Mrs. Lee told Aunt Maria that Wollas

lome l

hen I'm crossed; mother always sai

to Maria, and, in spite of her shr

." She hesitated a moment, looking at the child's averted face, and coloring. "

y see Wollaston Lee on the road, ahead of her, also running. He seemed to waver as he ran. Maria called out faintly. He evidently heard, for he slackened his pace a li

t isn't poison?" sai

t is; hope it is

cked to

be wicke

primitive cry of the primitive scape-goat of Creation. Already Maria began to feel the necessity of fitting her little sh

's going to marry her?" in

ny more than you do," said Maria

if I asked her," cried the boy, sti

were the teacher," said Maria, and her blue eyes looked in

gesture of disdain. "Who'd want you?

ton Lee resumed his race homewa

hat he told Maria. Maria, as usual, had gone to bed, but she was not asleep. Maria hear

esponde

st. The room was full of moonlight, and Maria's face looked like a nucleus of inn

ething to tell you,

a little from him

ll you, and not wait any longer, although I shall not take any decisive step before-before No

e Aunt Maria," replied Maria, de

d to come here, and she's done all she could, but-well, I think in some ways,

I sha

nded so like her dead mother's that he

ant father to be happy, don't you

her arms around her father's neck. "Yes, father,

ould never think of taking such a step," said Harry Edgham, and he honestly believed what he said. For

t Maria would marry you, and I wo

dgham, laughing, with a

r; that was the reason

"It will be all for the best," he said, "and we shall all be happier. Father doesn't think any the less of you, and never will, and he is never going to for

ind on anything long enough to hold herself awake. It was not merely the fact of her father's going to marry again, it was everything which that invo

is matrimonial intentions to her before he went to New York, an

Maria. I don't mean to get married until the November vacation, and it is

ouse cleaned, and slave here like a dog, getting ready for you to be married

ed helples

ria and I are going

r child," said Aunt Maria, "until you brought her new ma home. I have only a hundred dollars a ye

sly. "I thought you'd stay, Maria. There is the house to

Maria, with undisguised viciousness. "But

on't see

be glad enough to have you; and you can hire the cleaning done," said Aunt

it. There is a law of gravitation for the soul as well as for the body, and Maria fel

nd word, and I'll have you come and stay

r the sake of seeing her off; and she was late in the geography class

dys Mann snugg

true?" she

hat t

goin' to get mar

e Gladys a little push. "I wish