She evidently was not thinking of Lottie, nor yet of the advertisements,

until one struck her notice as being very singular. Holding it a little

more to the light she said: "Possibly this is the very person I

want--only the child might be an objection. Just listen," and Anna read

as follows: "WANTED--By an unfortunate young married woman, with a child a few

months old, a situation in a private family either as governess,

seamstress, or lady's maid. Country preferred. Address--"

Anna was about to say whom when a violent ringing of the bell announced

an arrival, and the next moment a tall young man, exceedingly

Frenchified in his appearance, entered the room, and was soon in the

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arms of his mother.

John, hastening to where Anna sat, wound his arms around her light

figure, and kissed her white lips and looked into her face with an

expression, which told that, however indifferent he might be to others,

he was not so to Anna.

"You have not changed for the worse," he said. "You are scarcely thinner

than when I went away."

"And you are vastly improved," was Anna's answer.

His mother continued: "I thought, perhaps, you were offended at my plain

letter concerning that girl, and resented it by not coming, but of

course you are glad now, and see that mother was right. What could you

have done with a wife in Paris?"

"I should not have gone," John answered, moodily, a shadow stealing over

his face.

It was not good taste for Mrs. Richards thus early to introduce a topic

on which John was really so sore, and for a moment an awkward silence

ensued, broken at last by the mother again, who, feeling that all was

not right, and anxious to know if there was yet aught to fear from a

poor, unknown daughter-in-law, asked, hesitatingly: "Have you seen her since your return?"

"She's dead," was the laconic reply, and then, as if anxious to change

the conversation, the young doctor turned to Anna and said: "Guess who

was my fellow traveler from Liverpool?"

Anna never could guess anything, and after a little her brother said: "The Rev. Charles Millbrook, missionary to Turkey, returning for his

health."

For an instant Anna trembled as if she saw opening before her the grave

which for fourteen years had held her buried heart. Charlie was

breathing again the air of the same hemisphere with herself. She might,

perhaps, see him once more, and Hattie, was she with him, or was there

another grave made with the Moslem dead by little Anna's aide? She would

not ask, for she felt the cold, critical eyes bent upon her from across

the hearth, and a few commonplace inquiries was all she ventured upon.

Had Mr. Millbrook greatly changed since he went away? Did he look very

sick? And how had her brother liked him?




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