cap as he jumped from the horse. Mistress Temple herself having arrived,
he handed her the letter. She took it, and broke the seal carelessly.

"Oh," she said, "it's only from Mr. Lowndes. I wonder what he wishes
now."

Every moment of her reading was for me an agony, and she read slowly.
The last words she spoke aloud:--

"'If you do not wish the lad, send him to me, as Kate is very fond of
him.' So Kate is very fond of him," she repeated. And handing the
letter to Mr. Mason, she added, "Tell him, Parson."

The words burned into my soul and seared it. And to this day I tremble
with anger as I think of them. The scene comes before me: the sky, the
darkened portico, and Nicholas running after his mother crying: "Oh,
mamma, how could you! How could you!"

Mr. Mason bent over me in compassion, and smoothed my hair.

"David," said he, in a thick voice, "you are a brave boy, David. You
will need all your courage now, my son. May God keep your nature sweet!"

He led me gently into the arbor and told me how, under Captain Baskin,
the detachment had been ambushed by the Cherokees; and how my father,
with Ensign Calhoun and another, had been killed, fighting bravely. The
rest of the company had cut their way through and reached the settlements
after terrible hardships.

I was left an orphan.