concealing something from her; she divined that it was the very thing in which I had promised my aid;-and she felt that somehow there was a breach of trust upon my part. She was acutely hurt, and the more so that her father evaded her and sought me. I could not explain and at first avoided her, for I knew that if she asked me a direct question I could not tell her a direct falsehood. If I had known Agnes Dyer as well then as I knew her afterward I should not have made that mistake, and she would never have so misunderstood me. I should have known that she was too proud to ask what she thought I was unwilling to tell.

Directly there was a change in her manner. She became less frank and confiding and more strictly courteous, and this increased. I had nothing to complain of; she was always a lady and treated me with the greatest deference; but she no longer told me her perplexities or asked my counsel with that trustfulness which, now that I had it no more, I found had been grateful. I could not endure that she should think meanly of me, and writhed under her implied distrust.

But of course there are two sides to everything. I must admit that Joel Dyer's keen interest was infectious, and I found myself going into details with a sort of satisfaction scarcely to be accounted for. It proved as I surmised, that thus far he had unconsciously followed Tom's track in his search for the same man. I went over it again, and all three ended together at Mauna Loa.

This much was proved: that in company with an American sailor an English tourist and a guide he ascended the volcano for a view of the crater. They all went down within the old crater and walked about on the hardened lava, a not dangerous feat. Lyon, however, pushed on through smoke and steam, and over insecure footing to obtain a near view of the living fire. In vain the guide warned, called, and followed, till half-stifled by sulphurous fumes, and notified by repeated sounds of coming danger, he hastily clambered back to a place of safety, and none to soon. All three waited breathlessly till the smoke and steam, lagging off, showed that the crust over which

Lyon had gone and from which the guide retreated had disappeared, falling into the liquid lava, just then boiling with renewed activity in that portion of the crater. Alarmed for their safety they withdrew, still calling and searching for Lyon. They remained in the vicinity till night without finding any trace of him, and at last descended the mountain with the conviction that he had been swallowed up in the crater. It was a horrible fate, but one that he appeared to court. In fact, it would seem that he had repeatedly tried to give away the life he no longer valued. This recklessness passed for bravery. He was reported to have entered a burning building in San Francisco, despite efforts to prevent him, saving a child in an upper room by letting it down from a spot inaccessible to the firemen, and then flinging himself down, and, to the astonishment of all present, escaping with only a few bruises and a broken arm.

At another time during a storm he threw himself into the sea in mid-ocean to rescue a drowning sailor,-the same man who accompanied him to Mauna Loa. Now, however, the life he held so cheap he had succeeded in throwing away. At least that was the opinion of those who knew most about the affair. Two years had passed, leaving no evidence to the contrary, and I should have been quite content to acquiesce in the general opinion, only that neither Tom nor Mr. Dyer were quite satisfied with the proofs, and had presentiments, born, as I thought, of their hope, that he was still alive. To make a certainty of the matter, a man was found who for a considerable sum engaged to go to Hawaii, and search the affair to the bottom.

CHAPTER IX.

FESTAL DAYS.

ONE rare May morning I was walking up and down the garden path finishing my cigar, and on better terms with myself than I had been for some time past, when Maud came cooing about me. She harmonized with the morning and my contented mood. She was so small, so round, so dainty that she was everybody's pet, and withal so absurdly dignified that she was nobody's play

thing. In her the transition from childhood to womanhood was unmarked by those surprising changes that in some girls show an unprepossessing child one day, and an attractive maiden the next. From a wee thing she had ever been somewhat of a woman; to old age she would ever be somewhat of a child. Just now, in her light raiment, her delicately-tinted skin and her fair hair brushed back and fastened in some becoming fashion, she was almost an object of adoration; much like an angel, no way like a saint.

For a man who had never loved any woman enough to feel that she must be mine, I was singularly susceptible to feminine influences. Maud graciously accepted my homage as her due, pleased with it as an evidence that she could coax me into almost any arrangement she might choose to make.' She clasped her dimpled hands over my arm and walked with me up and down, voiceless, save her persuasive face. Presently I tossed the remainder of my cigar into a tuft of ribbon grass and answering her silent entreaty said:

"Well Pet, what now?"

splendid," and Maud waltzed down the garden path, keeping time to fairy bells that are ever ringing in the ear of youth. Returning she made me a graceful obeisance.

"Thanks, Uncle, for Hal as well as myself! Do you know the thing was his suggestion? He is just wild to get Miss Dyer here."

"What possesses the boy? He needs a cooling draught."

"No, Uncle," said Maud, sobered by something she saw in my face. "We shall all be cool enough. Hal insists on bringing North P. with him. I fear it will spoil everything, but Hal says No."

The next two weeks I kept to my office and my den, and thrust my fingers in my ears if any of the family offered to approach. For every thing in the house was upsidedown and inside-out, and consultations innumerable were going on.

“Now, Uncle,” said Maud on the morning of the eventful day, "you must look your very best to-night, for you are all the Papa I have, and we must do each other great credit." And before the guests began to arrive she came to my room, turned me

66

Shocking! I supposed you not more than nine or ten at the utmost. What am I to do? Take off a few years?"

isfactory-only that I did not look sufficiently reverend to be her Papa; and suggested that a few gray hairs in my brown beard would be an improvement. As for

a fleecy cloud. I had not dreamed that she

"Am I all right?" she asked, surveying

"Yes, Pet, only I think I ought to give you a sedative to keep your head level. All

Now Maud knew that I detested crowds, parties, assemblies of more than a dozen or so, and was prepared for a sharp encounter, fully persuaded that she would come off victorious in the end. Seeing this in her mischievous eyes I surrendered without a struggle. She should have a party, a strictly elegant affair, stipulating only that there should be no more guests than could be easily entertained.

night."

is more than I can understand. Jack says we shall be frozen stiff in half an hour, and quoting you for authority that food is fire, has fortified himself with a good supper in advance."

"Make Jack hold his tongue and see that you treat Hal's guest with consideration." "Yes, of course. But if he looms up so dreadfully what am I to do?"

"Get upon a chair and shout."

tinually vibrating between a straight line and a right angle whenever he addressed her. If he had been sitting and she standing it would have been more comfortable for both. To an observer Northrop Duff was all black and white, with a good, strong, manly face, and was, I doubt not, sufficiently magnetic to deserve his sobriquet. A theologue, evidently; and a man of mark in the future. As Maud fluttered compassionately about

about a lighted torch.

Probably no one noticed the sharp tussle between duty and repugnance in Tom's expressive face before he approached Mr.

As the evening wore on I saw that Mary had consulted my enjoyment as well as Maud's happiness in reference to our guests. I saw old friends on all sides; prominently Tom and his cultured wife. But I must own to a feeling of surprise compounded with uneasiness as I saw Mr. Dyer approach with Agnes on his arm. Possibly she divined this, for a little later she said: "Papa so rarely goes in society that I should have solicited in vain if the invitation had come from elsewhere; " adding as I thought a little sadly and reproachfully as her eyes rested for a moment on mine, "you seem to have unlimited influence with him." It was one of those swift impressions that come and go, and recur after an interval. And I was so busy speculating how Mr. Dyer and Tom would get on together that I failed to give her words the attention they deserved. Then, too, Maud was hovering about for a chance to say unobserved: He is not so

very tall, Uncle. He hears me readily." "Only about six feet six. See that Jack keeps out of ear-shot. I heard him just now making inquiries about longitude and talking of the open Polar sea."

That sent Maud off in a comical gale of distress, for she was as tender-hearted as a fluffy chicken. I understood her motherly attention to Mr. Duff for the remainder of the evening. It had an absurd side too that kept my risibles in a state of chronic irritation. She was so short and he was so tall and so ceremoniously polite, that he was con

lations, as pastor to a convalescent parishioner. It was a thing to study-the antipathy of these two men, which both shared and neither could explain. I could see that Tom was holding himself with a strong hand, and admired his cool pluck, wondering if he saw the latent fury like a pent-up fire in Mr. Dyer's steady eyes, while he accepted with icy courtliness Tom's congratulations. This episode once over it was a relief to see them drift apart into more congenial eddies.

Late in the evening Tom touched my arm saying: "Do you remember I once said that Miss Dyer was probably a heathen by inheritance?"

"Something of the sort," answered I, with a nod.

It occurred to me just now, and I wish to take it back. It was uncharitable in the beginning, but I did not know how thoroughly unjust it was till recently. I have met her several times and find her a true Christian lady in every sense of the word. And if you have through me received the impression that she is anything else, I am truly sorry."

"It is all right, Tom,” said I, giving his arm a little shake. "Your conscience troubles you unnecessarily."

"No; I say heedless things when I, of all men, should be more careful. Look at Miss Dyer. Did you ever see a finer face?" Following his eyes I saw through the open doors Northrop Duff and Miss Dyer sitting in the library, while Hal stood between

them, leaning over the back of the tete-atete talking to Miss Dyer. How well the fellow looked; I suppose I had a right to be proud of him, and said as much to Tom.

'He is well enough," answered Tom, indifferently. "It was Miss Dyer I wanted you to see."

Miss Dyer seemed listening attentively, and when Hal paused she answered, while he stood quite near looking steadily in her face; and no wonder, for as she went on it kindled and glowed till it was something, rare to see. It was a most changeful and expressive face, with a language all its own. Both men listened as if entranced, but they were too far off, and the hum of voices in our vicinity were too distinct to permit us to get at all the drift of their conversation. I had seen her only in her own home, in the characters of daughter and nurse. Now her ease, her sincerity, her culture, all told. It was impossible to look at her and not feel that, sympathetic and considerate as she was, she still somehow stood apart as if of finer clay, and yet a Christian lady as Tom had said, and that without the least shadow of assumption. She was marked too by the severe elegance of her dress which was of some sort of heavy pearl-colored fabric, that fell in folds like the drapery of a Grecian goddess. Her only ornament was a chain about her white throat, with a cross of opals set in Etruscan gold.

Mary called me off and I saw Miss Dyer no more till later in the evening. I surprised an old friend by breaking off in the midst of a remark and turning as if I had been called. Directly back of me and at the opposite side of the room stood Miss Dyer looking at me. A quick flush swept over her face as on the first night at her father's house she unexpectedly saw me looking at her. I went over to her at once.

dazzled me. But it vanished as quickly as it came, and she added, gravely, "Father is getting weary and we must go home. I was looking for your niece."

We will find her; and putting Miss Dyer's hand on my arm we threaded our way through room after room. She was quite silent and walked with down-cast eyes. There were several things I wished to say, but somehow not a word came till in the hall we found Maud searching for us. Leaving her in Maud's hands I sought Mr. Dyer, and found him looking as weary and annoyed as a well-bred man ever allows himself to look in society.

"Doctor," said he, as I accompanied him to his carriage, "I have seen you in the distance all the evening. Come up to the house and let me see you close at hand.” "To-morrow."

Hal was handing in Miss Dyer, his manly face glowing with happiness. How well they set each other off.

The next morning Hal and Northrop Duff went to New Haven to prepare for examination, for both were to graduate in July.

We heard from them almost daily, and as soon as examinations were satisfactorily over Hal came home, bringing his friend with him to pass the time till commence

ment.

All sorts of excursions, drives, walks, and what not were planned and executed, including of course Miss Dyer. They were a frolicsome set. And if Miss Dyer tempered their gaiety she also joined in their mirth, and they were all the happier for her presence. Her low laugh was a pleasant thing to hear, and both girls grew brighter and more beautiful day by day.

Of course everybody went to commencement to hear Northrop's philosophical and Hal's oration. My previous opinion of Northrop's ability was confirmed. His head was the better of the two, but Hal's speech was by all odds the more popular.