"No, Miss Lucretia, I cannot," she answered.

"I won't press it on you now," said Miss Lucretia.

"I cannot, Miss Lucretia. I'm going to Coniston."

"Going to Coniston!" exclaimed Miss Lucretia.

The name of that place--magic name, once so replete with visions of
happiness and content--seemed to recall Cynthia's spirit from its flight.
Yes, the spirit was there, for it flashed in her eyes as she turned and
looked into Miss Lucretia's face.

"Are these the articles you read?" she asked; taking the clippings from
her muff.

Miss Lucretia put on her spectacles.

"I have seen both of them," she said.

"And do you believe what they say about--about Jethro Bass?"

Poor Miss Lucretia! For once in her life she was at a loss. She, too,
paid a deference to that face, young as it was. She had robbed herself of
sleep trying to make up her mind what she would say upon such an occasion
if it came. A wonderful virgin faith had to be shattered, and was she to
be the executioner? She loved the girl with that strange, intense
affection which sometimes comes to the elderly and the lonely, and she
had prayed that this cup might pass from her. Was it possible that it was
her own voice using very much the same words for which she had rebuked