had lost on the surface, was that Hetty, in the bottom of her heart, was
slowly growing conscious that she cared a great deal about him.

No woman, whatever she may say and honestly mean, can entirely dismiss
from her thoughts the memory of the words in which a man has told her he
loves her. Especially is this true when those words are the first words
of love which have ever been spoken to her. Morning and night, as Hetty
came and went, in her brisk cheery way, in and out of the house and
about the farm, she wore a new look on her face. The words, "I love you
with all my heart," haunted her. She did not believe them any more now
than before; but they had a very sweet sound. She was no nearer now than
then to any impulse to take Dr. Williams at his word: nothing could be
deeper implanted in a soul than the conviction was in Hetty's that no
man was likely to love her. But she was no longer so sure that she
herself could not love. Vague and wistful reveries began to interrupt
her activity. She would stand sometimes, with her arms folded, leaning
on a stile, and idly watching her men at work, till they wondered what
had happened to their mistress. She lost a little of the color from her
cheeks, and the full moulded lines of her chin grew sharper.

"Faith, an' Miss Hetty's goin' off, sooner 'n she's any right to," said
Mike to Norah one day. "What puts such a notion in your head thin,
Mike?" retorted Norah, "sure she's as foine a crayther as's in all the
county, an' foiner too."

"Foine enough, but I say for all that that she's a goin' off in her
looks mighty fast," replied the keen-eyed Mike. "You don't think she'd
be a pinin' for anybody, do you?"

Norah gave a hearty Irish laugh.