strong, that I fear both weakness and injustice. Tell him I want very
much to see him, and will let him know as soon as I am able."

"Thank you, uncle! He will be so glad! Of course he can't feel as I do,
but he does feel that to do anything you did not like, would be just
horrid."

"And you will not see him again, little one, after he has taken you home,
till I have had some talk with him?"

"Of course I will not, uncle."

I bade him good-bye, had a few moments' conference with Martha, and found
John at the place appointed.




CHAPTER XVIII.


JOHN SEES SOMETHING.

As we rode, I told him everything. It did not seem in the least strange
that I should be so close to one of whom a few days before I had never
heard; it seemed as if all my life I had been waiting for him, and now he
was come, and everything was only as it should be! We were very quiet in
our gladness. Some slight anxiety about my uncle's decision, and the
certain foreboding of trouble on the part of his mother, stilled us both,
sending the delight of having found each other a little deeper and out of