CHAPTER VII.

THE grey of twilight was paling the

gold of the after-glow. A quiet hush had fallen upon the earth-rather intensified than disturbed by the lowing of far-away cattle. It was the quiet of raptured anticipation, as if great hands held the earth up to the baptismal font of the heavens to receive the chrism of night; and the earth, like a wise and reverent child, waited with hushed heart-beats for the benediction.

Sidney Martin waited in the porch for Vashti to keep her tryst, and presently he heard her footsteps. The echo of each step gathered in his heart, dilating it with happiness as an already full glass is brimmed above the brink by drop after drop. From his position, where he stood spell-bound, he commanded an angled vista of the stairs, and slowly she descended within his range of vision; first the beautiful foot, proportioned so perfectly to the body. it bore, then the long exquisite lines from heel to hip, and the yet more exquisite curve from hip to shoulder, and the melting graduation of breast to throat, and then the perfect face of her. She paused for a moment upon the last step, as if loath to step out of her pure rarefied atmosphere of maidenhood into the air vibrant with the sobs and sighs, the hopes and despairs, the gains and losses of human life; and standing thus, for one fleeting second there rose before Vashti a vision of renuncia

tion. She saw herself, lonely but clad in righteousness going on her way; but the next instant the austere dream vanished, brushed aside by a hateful, sneering cynicism. With a heart full of self-mockery, more evil than her evil intent, Vashti took the step to Sidney's side, and stood there the typification, as he thought, of gentle dignity and dignified womanhood.

"How good you are," he said gently.

They took the way almost in silence. She wondered vaguely where he would take her, to the far-away pastures, the little knolls nestling upon the hills which he loved, or to the oak trees where they had talked in the morning. When they reached the road she submitted her steps to his guidance with outward meekness and inward indifference. He turned away from Dole. It was to be the far-away pastures thenas well there as anywhere. But he had passed the gate! And then it dawned upon her. He was taking her to Mul

lein meadow !

Her indifference fell from her like a rent garment, bitter remembrance tore at her heart. How dare he bring her here and bid her masquerade amid these grey boulders where she had known such agony! She imagined those implacable rocks rejoicing in her humiliation. Were not her own curses yet hissing across the eerie barrenness of this wide waste field? Ah, even so

Vashti-if our curses do not seek us out we ourselves return to their realm; there is great affinity between a curse and the lips which utter it. The flame of her resentment fluttered to her cheeks giving them an unwonted touch of rose. As they reached the entrance to Mullein meadow, she half stumbled, she recovered herself quickly, Sidney's swift touch being hardly needed to restore her poise.

To Sidney, her silence, the strange, sweet colour in her cheeks, her uncertain step, pointed but to one thingthe natural agitation of a girl about to have a man's love laid at her feet.

Surely never man was so exquisitely befooled as this one?

He took the path straight for the little spot where that happy betrothal had taken place. Vashti hesitatedthis was too much.

"I," she opened her lips to speak, but the words died away, unmerciful resolution freezing them at their source.

"Come," urged Sidney with tender insistence, and with an appearance of sweet submission she yielded, and at length they stood where those others had stood. The same grey sky bent above them, the same quiet hush brooded over the desolate reaches, the same clear star hung scintillant in the sky, and Sidney, taking her hands, which trembled by reason of the terrible restraint she was putting upon her anger, began to speak-very gently, but with an intensity which made his words instinct with life and love.

"You know," he said, "why I have asked you to come out to-night, but you cannot know why I have brought you here to this spot? It is because it is a place of happy auguries. Here, not knowing whither I strayed I came upon the betrothal of Lanty and Mabella. Here, heartsick with envy of their happiness I turned away to face the desolate greyness of the twilight. Here I saw a star, one lone star in the grey, which seemed to promise hope, and in my heart I named it Vashti. See - there it is, but more golden now, more full of beneficent promise, burdened, as it seems to me, with gracious

benediction. Oh, Vashti, when I left those two in the solitude of their happiness you cannot dream how my heart cried for you. All the way home nature's voices whispered in my ear "Vashti-Vashti," and my heart responded "Vashti," and it seemed to me there was no other word in all the universe, for in it were bound all meanings. It seemed to me there was no other idea worth comprehending but the identity behind that word. Vashti say that you love me-that you will marry me. Here, where my heart knew its bitterest longing, satisfy it with one syllable of your voice. Let me also build tabernacles here as the holy place where happiness descended upon me;" he let fall her hands. "Vashti, you know that I love you; give me your hands in symbol of yourself as a free gift.'

He held out his hands. Slowly, gently, trustingly, as a woman who knows well what she does, and will abide by it, Vashti Lansing laid her hands in his. His vibrant, slender fingers closed upon them. There was an instant's pause

"You love me!" he cried, as one, after a long novitiate, might hail the goddess unveiled at last. Then drawing her to

him he kissed her on the mouth, and from that moment was hers-bodyand yet more terrible bondage-mind; and she, with an astute and evil wisdom, forebore to make any conditions, any demands, till he had tasted the sweets of her acquiescence.

Would any man give her up, having held her in his arms, having touched her lips? With shameless candour she told herself, No. So she rested her head upon his shoulder, whilst he whispered in her ear the divine incoherencies of love, and intoxicated with the charm of the woman in his arms, touched the white throat by the ear where a curl of dark hair coiled like a soft, sweet shadow. A long, contented, yet questioning sigh came to him

"Tell me?" he said.

"You will let me live always in Dole?" she said.

Vashti!" said Sidney, almost reeling before the shock of her words. As a beautiful white mist rolls back to show some scene of sordid misery, so the glamour of the last few weeks lifted, and displayed vividly to Sidney all the awkwardness of the position which he had created for himself. Ever since that day, when stung by Sally's impertinent words he had agonized alone upon the hillside, nothing whatever had transpired to awaken its memory.

A deference rather more pronounced than necessary upon the part of the village-folk, a certain constraint upon the part of the young men had been the only visible signs that Dole remembered. But upon the other hand nothing had occurred which gave him the opportunity of explaining to Vashti, nor, indeed, had he ever been able to decide how he could explain to her, even if given the opening. He had gone to church with the Lansings Sunday after Sunday. Under the circumstances any other course would have been an insult to the régime of the house in which he was staying. He had found nothing in the little church which jarred upon his tastes or revolted his principles. The simple, pious sermons of gray-haired Mr. Didymus were entirely inoffensive to anyone not of malice prepense irritable. The sad experiences of his long life had mitigated his judgments. The man who in his fiery youth scoffed at death-bed repentances now spoke feelingly of the thief on the cross; the elect murmured among themselves that Mr. Didymus was "growin' old and slack." Certainly his sermons were not learned, but neither were they devoid of a certain eloquence, for the old man knew his Bible by heart, and above all they were free from the anecdotal inanity; it would never have occurred to the old, plain-spoken man to stand in his

pulpit telling his people tales suitable for the comprehension of three-yearold children. There was, perhaps, the merest trace of asceticism in Sidney Martin's nature, and the simple doctrine of these people, their fatalistic creed, their bare little church, appealed to him as no gorgeous ritual or ornate sanctuary could have done. The hoarse, untuneful singing of these country folk, taking no shame of their poor performance, so that it was in praise of God, stirred his spiritual sympathies more profoundly than any cathedral organ-yet-he was a creature of reason, and he had always considered the Catholic Church more logical than any other, and above all, he had no belief whatever in the Christian doctrine. Ruled by a pure and lofty ideal of Truth, his life had been ideally good. His lofty aspirations did not. lift him beyond sympathy with his fellows, only above their vileness. He adored nature with an almost heathenish idolatry, and had such reverence for her slightest manifestation, that he never willingly broke a leaf or crushed an insect. Literally, he worshipped the works, but not the Creator. And lo!-here was the woman round whom his very soul twined, taking it for granted that he believed all she did, and that his life could compass no higher happiness than to preach this belief to others; and what excellent grounds he had given her for thinking thus! All these things mirrored themselves in his mind in an instant, then he said:

"But Vashti, I have no need to do anything. There are many worthier men than I to fill Mr. Didymus's place. I am not a preacher, you know."

"Oh, but you will be for my sake,' she said, and laid her head down again upon his shoulder like a child who has found rest.

Truly there are more tempting devils than the urbane gentleman of the cloven hoofs.

"What had you meant to do?" she asked.

"Indeed, I had mapped out no defi

"My

nite course," he answered. mother's money makes life easy for me, you know, but I had meant to do something, certainly. Only I was tak ing my time looking about. I didn't want to do anything which would cut some fellow who needed it out of a living."

"Let me decide for you," she murmured; the breath of the words was warm on his ear. "Think how happy you could make us all. They all think so much of you in Dole on account of your prayer. Mary Shinar says you are a saint." Then, her arms stealing about his neck, she added, "Sidney, for my sake you said you would sacrifice anything. I didn't think this would be a sacrifice. I thought it would be a dellght; but if it is a sacrifice make it for my sake."

Alas he had fallen among the toils! He took swift illogical thought with himself. He would preach to them a pure and exalted morality. He would be the apostle of nature's pure creed. He would make Dole a proverb in all New England. He would teach, he would have a library, he would marry Vashti.

Glamoured by his love and his sophistry, his judgment, his sense of right and wrong failed him. Sidney caught his Delilah to his heart.

"It shall be as you wish, my sweet," he said; "and now tell me you love me."

"I love you," she said, repressing the triumph in her voice. "I love you and I am proud of you," she said again, holding her head high. If she had lost much in Mullein meadow she had also gained a triumph there.

The short American twilight was darkening to night. The weird old boulders sentinelled round them might have been a druidical circle, and she the priestess fulfilling the rites. Nor was the victim wanting; only instead of slaying the body with a golden knife she had killed the soul with silvery speech.

"Ah," said Sidney as they turned to thread their way out of Mullein meadow, "surely this place is holy."

She paused, looking at him--" Do you not think that suffering sanctifies more than joy?" she asked.

"No, not such joy as ours, as Lanty's and Mabella's.'

"I don't know," she said.

"But I'm sure of it!" he answered; then with a lover's fantastical fondness he went on, "I would not be surprised if when we visited this spot again we found it hedged in by lilies, tall white eucharist lilies, set to keep others from straying into consecrated ground."

"Sidney," she said, "promise that you will never, never ask me to come here again-it is too sacred."

He was deeply touched by her delicate, sensitive thought.

"Dear heart," he said, "never; yet do not the most reverent lips approach the sacramental cup more than once?"

"You will make a capital preacher," she said, "but you must not persuade people to do things against their conscience."

"You shall do as you like always."

They were on the highway by this time; a waggon overtook them, and then went on at a foot pace just in ad

vance.

Vashti seemed to walk with intentional swiftness.

"Vashti," he whispered, "don't walk so fast. Let those people get out of sight."

"We must go on," she said.

Sidney thought this touch of shyness adorable in her who was so self-poised, yet he protested with zeal. Do men always try to destroy what they admire?

Suddenly Vashti bethought herself that an extra rivet was never amiss when one wanted bonds to hold, so with a sigh as of timorous yielding, she gave him her lips again in the shadow of the porch, and left him with a glory of happiness bedimming his mental vision.

The house was dim-lit and silent. After the labours of threshing-day every one was worn out. Lights glimmered in the bedrooms but the living rooms were dark.

Sidney aced up and down the little

garden path for long, feeling "caught up to heaven, yet strangely knit to earth."

Vashti sought her room, and pulling up the blind looked out where Mullein meadow lay.

"A holy place!" she said to herself. "I wish I could pile the fire to burn all three of them. A tabernacle,' he said; I wish I might build me an altar there and slay them on it! I don't think even an angel would stay my hand. 'A sacrament;' I wish I had the filling of their cups, wormwood should they drink and the waters of Marah down to the very dregs-all three!"

Her nostrils dilated like a brute's upon traces of the prey. In the breast of such a woman love denied turns to gall. She paced up and down, up and down-her rage lent expression in grotesque gestures and evil words, words which with Vashti Lansing's teaching and training she was superbly brave to

use.

It grew very late; her eyes were almost wild. She took the guttering candle in one hand and crept along the passage to Mabella's room. She opened the door and went in. Mabella lay asleep, her candid face budding from the prim little frill like a flower from its calyx. Vashti bent above her a haggard and violent face distorted by passion.

Her eyes blazed; her lips drawn tensely back showed the strong white teeth. She leaned over the sleeper, her strong fingers closing and unclosing; a long tress of her hair fell across her shoulder suddenly and touched the dreamer's cheek-Mabella stirred, raised her hand half way to her cheek, murmured with a little happy smile"Lanty-Lan-" her voice died away; her soft regular breathing continued unbroken. At the sound of that name uttered thus a dreadful purpose lighted Vashti's eyes. The fingers of her strong hand opened wide and advanced themselves toward the white throat which pulsed upon the pillow; at that moment the guttering candle fell over. Its burning wick and melted grease struck the hand which held it. Vashti instinctively uttered a smothered cry and jerked her hand; the light went.

out.

Mabella stirred; Vashti sped to her room and got the door closed just as Temperance came to her door and said,

"Did any one call?"

There was no response.

"Are you all right, Mabella?" she said going across the hall to Mabella's door.

"Yes," said Mabella sleepily. "I think I knocked something over with my elbow and the noise woke me up.' "Are you all right, Vashti ?"

"Yes, what is it?" answered Vashti. "Nothin'-thought I heard a noise." For hours Vashti Lansing lay and trembled with the only fear she knew; the fear of herself. How near she had been to terrible crime, only she and Omnipotence could know. She reflected upon consequences and told herself that never again would she give herself such an opportunity. At last she sank to rest, to be tormented till dawn by a strange vision.

It seemed to her she stood again in Mullein meadow, within the circle of boulders, and that slowly, slowly they closed in upon her; closer and closer they came, narrowing about her with gradual but horrible certainty, and at last they touched her and held her tight, shackling her hand and foot so that she could not move a muscle, but they did' not kill her; and whilst she was thus held all Dole defiled before her; the villagers pointed at her with scornful fingers and passed whispering on; her mother, who had been long dead, passed with her father, but they did not look at her, nor seem to know she was there, nor did old Mr. and Mrs. Didymus who presently joined her father and mother. Then the scene grew brighter and she saw Temperance and Nathan together; they shook their heads, looking at her sadly but coldly; then a sweeter radiance flooded the view upon which she looked, and Mabella and Lanty with little children about them drew nigh her, and they spoke kindly words to her, and put a shade over her head to keep off the sun's heat, and raised a cup to her lips, and one of their child