friend, the "seafaring gentleman," and had asked Miss Hathaway to
put the light in the window--that was all.

Ruth's reason was fully satisfied, but something else was not.
"I'm not going to think about it any more," she said to herself,
resolutely, and thought she meant it.

She ate her dinner with the zest of hunger, while Hepsey
noiselessly served her. "I have been to Miss Ainslie's, Hepsey,"
she said at length, not wishing to appear unsociable.

The maid's clouded visage cleared for an instant. "Did you find
out about the lamp?" she inquired, eagerly.

"No, I didn't, Hepsey; but I'll tell you what I think. Miss
Ainslie has read a great deal and has lived alone so much that
she has become very much afraid of shipwreck. You know all of us
have some one fear. For instance, I am terribly afraid of green
worms, though a green worm has never harmed me. I think she asked
Miss Hathaway to put the lamp in the window, and possibly told
her of something she had read which made her feel that she should
have done it before."

Hepsey's face took on its old, impenetrable calm.

"Don't you think so?" asked Miss Thorne, after a long pause.

"Yes'm."

"It's all very reasonable, isn't it?"