"Undoubtedly he was," said John. "A burglar, I dare say, and you were

fortunate, all of you, in not being stolen from your beds as you lay

sleeping."

"Oh, we keep our doors locked," was Anna's demure reply.

"Midnight, as I live!" he exclaimed, and was glad of an excuse for

retiring, as he wished now to be alone.

Anna had not asked him half what she had meant to ask concerning

Charlie, but she would not keep him longer, and with a kiss upon his

handsome brow she sent him away, herself holding the door a little ajar

and listening to see what effect the new carpet would have upon him. It

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did not have any at first, so much was he absorbed in that man with the

scar upon his temple. Why had he come there, and why had it not been

told him before? His people were so stupid in their letters, never

telling what was sure to interest him most. But what good could it have

done had he known of the mysterious visit? None whatever--at least

nothing particular had resulted from it, he was sure.

"It must have been just after one of his sprees, when he is always more

than half befogged," he said to himself. "Possibly he was passing this

way and the insane idea seized him to stop and pretend to buy Terrace

Hill. The rascal!" and having thus satisfactorily settled it in his

mind, the doctor did look at Anna's carpet, admiring its pattern, and

having a kind of pleasant consciousness that everything was in keeping,

from the handsome drapery which shaded the windows to the marble hearth

on which a fire was blazing.

In Adah Hastings' dream that night there were visions of a little room

far up in a fourth story, where her fair head was pillowed again upon

the manly arm of one who listened while she chided him gently for his

long delay, and then told him of their Willie boy so much like him, as

the young mother thought.

In Dr. Richards' dreams, when at last he slept, there were visions of a

lonely grave in a secluded part of Greenwood, and he heard again the

startling words: "Dead, both she and the child."

He did not know there was a child, and he staggered in his sleep, just

as he staggered down the creaking stairs, repeating to himself: "Lily's child--Lily's child. May Lily's God forgive me."




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