looked up with a melancholy smile: "I must take a moment to recover
my expression of gayety, so that no one out there may notice
anything."

Then he passed out upon the steps with a joking speech to the
company at the table, and she heard their laughing answers; but she
herself remained behind in the garden-room.

Poor young man! how sorry she was for him; and how strange that she
of all people should be the only one in whom he confided. What
secret sorrow could it be that depressed him? Perhaps he, too, had
lost his mother. Or could it be something still mote terrible? How
glad she would be if only she could help him.

When Rebecca presently came out he was once more the blithest of
them all. Only once in a while, when he looked at her, his eyes
seemed again to assume that melancholy, half-beseeching expression;
and it cut her to the heart when he laughed at the same moment.

At last came the time for departure; there was hearty leave-taking
on both sides. But as the last of the packing was going on, and in
the general confusion, while every one was finding his place in the
carriages, or seeking a new place for the homeward journey, Rebecca
slipped into the house, through the rooms, out into the garden, and
away to the King's Knoll. Here she seated herself in the shadow of
the trees, where the violets grew, and tried to collect her thoughts.

--"What about the violets, Mr. Lintzow?" cried Miss Frederica, who
had already taken her seat in the carriage.