CHAPTER XVII 



" DIDST thou not watch for hours our track, 



And for the absent seem to pine, 

 And when the well-known voice came back, 

 What ecstacy could equal thine ? " 



ELIZABETH CHAULES. 



THERE came one dark October 

 night I shall never forget. We 

 were on our way again for doc- 

 tor's and aunt Mary's. The wind came up 

 off the sea and sighed through the trees, 

 like a sad song of parting. A shadow fell 

 over my little heart that had been so full of 

 love and trust all its life; a dread and fear 

 seized upon me, I could not tell why. I 

 felt it when mamma held me close over her 

 heart, and sat silently in the dark; and when 

 we got to aunt Mary's and the bright lamps 

 were lighted, I still clung close around her 

 neck with my slender arms, and would not 

 be put down upon the carpet, to play with 

 old Sportum and caper around the way I 

 always had done. 

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