made him free from his father's control as he practically long had
been, but it also found him bound more strongly than ever by his
mother's love and need to his old home life.




CHAPTER IX

A DESERT ISLAND



The good cry that Edith indulged in on her way to the boat was a
relief to her heart, which had long been overburdened. But the
necessity of controlling her feelings, and the natural buoyancy of
youth, enabled her by the time they reached the wharf to see that the
furniture and baggage were properly taken care of. No one could detect
the traces of grief through her thick veil, or guess from her firm,
quiet tones, that she felt somewhat as Columbus might when going in
search of a new world. And yet Edith had a hope from her country life
which the others did not share at all.

When she was quite a child her feeble health had induced her father to
let her spend an entire summer in a farmhouse of the better class,
whose owner had some taste for flowers and fruit. These she had
enjoyed and luxuriated in as much as any butterfly of the season, and
as she romped with the farmer's children, roamed the fields and woods
in search of berries, and tumbled in the fragrant hay, health came
tingling back with a fullness and vigor that had never been lost. With