different, or to go off anywhere. Why won't you let me stay with you?"

And so she had to let the matter drop.

The truth was she had become anxious to get him away; but it was on his
account, not hers.

In putting his room to rights one day since his return from college she
had come upon a scrap of paper containing some verses addressed "To Ida."
Paul had rather a pretty knack at turning rhymes, and the tears came to
Miss Ludington's eyes as she read these lines. They were an attempt at a
love sonnet, throbbing with passion, and yet so mystical in some of the
allusions that nothing but her knowledge of Paul's devotion to Ida would
have given her a clue to his meaning. She was filled with apprehension as
she considered the effect which this infatuation, if it should continue
to gain strength, might have upon one of Paul's dreamy temperament and
excessive ideality. That she had devoted her own lonely and useless life
to the cult of the past did not greatly matter, although in the light of
her present happier faith she saw and regretted her mistake; but as for
permitting Paul's life to be overshadowed by the same influence she could
not consent to it. Something must be done to get him away from home, or
at least to divert the current of his thought. The failure of her efforts
to induce him to consider any scheme that involved his leaving the
village threw her into a state of great uneasiness.




CHAPTER IV.