in its tawdry apparel, but into the distance. When she stood still and
looked at him with a half-angry, half-frightened face, he brought his
bleared eyes to bear upon her, studied her for a minute, then motioned to
his wife.

"She must take off this paltry finery, Deborah," he announced. "I'll have
none of it. Go, child, and don your Cinderella gown."

"What does it all mean?" cried Audrey, with heaving bosom. "Why did she
put these things upon me, and why will she tell me nothing? If Hugon has
hand in it"--

The minister made a gesture of contempt. "Hugon! Hugon, half Monacan and
half Frenchman, is bartering skins with a Quaker. Begone, child, and when
you are transformed return to us."

When the door had closed he turned upon his wife. "The girl has been cared
for," he said. "She has been fed,--if not with cates and dainties, then
with bread and meat; she has been clothed,--if not in silk and lace, then
in good blue linen and penistone. She is young and of the springtime, hath
more learning than had many a princess of old times, is innocent and good
to look at. Thou and the rest of thy sex are fools, Deborah, but wise men
died not with Solomon. It matters not about her dress."

Rising, he went to a shelf of battered, dog-eared books, and taking down
an armful proceeded to strew the volumes upon the table. The red blooms of
the columbine being in the way, he took up the bunch and tossed it out of
the window. With the light thud of the mass upon the ground eyes of
husband and wife met.