Arsd

a rear room Marie, with a candle burning b

per, her eyes growing brighter at sight of her. "I had

poor lame knees, Ma

not like the feel of the night. Wa

es

bed by now. You

ep in the little roo

ed anything in the ni

rself in her bed, but, she still f

, Marie. G

forehead and was going out when she hear

horse may m

him in his new position?" s

swered sharpl

darkness that she, too, f

e to ignore the silent part Horace Arsdale, the grandfather, had played in the New York business world or the quiet influence he had exerted in such musica

Why they are-

t w

er lot. But they ha

and Benjamin built the present Arsdale house at a time when it was like building in the wilderness. Here he shut himself up w

jamin Arsdale. They say he has a

peared from time to time in the magazines. Though a member of the best half dozen Ne

er a little girl of nine appeared, a niece of Arsdale's, it was said, and this completed the household, though old Père Moisson died in the course of time, leaving his wife and Jacques as a sort of legacy to his old master, for a body-guard. The only reports of the inmates to the outside world came through the other servants who were employed here from time to time, and the most they had to say was that Arsdale was "queer," a

e light about the bowed head of the man. When she first learned she could not tell, but as a very young girl she remembered d

will you sit w

and she knew that he did not wish her to speak. He wished for her only to sit there where he could see her. She was never afraid, but at times there came into h

ss your foreh

hortly after fall into a

d gave them their tasks for the next day. He seemed to know everything and had a way of making one understand very difficult matters such as fractions and irregular French verbs. In the afternoon came the music lessons. He was anxious for them both to play well upon the violin, for he said that it had been to him one of the greatest joys of his life. Each night before bedtime he used

l to be like that?" h

no," Ben wo

you lose a grip upon yourself in temper

ened her, though it sounded very savage, like

love. He was very much older than she, and possessed a glorious mustache which turned up at the corners. He helped her up and down the deck one day when the wind was blowing, and that night she lay awake think

is on your min

had been surprised to see his

thoughts int

e flung her arms around his knees and, sobbing, pleaded with him until he stayed. Then a

is the nature of man. If it were not for all the other fair things there are in life I would place you in a convent, for the best man who ever live

u, dear

forgive me, I

self and his wild speech, but the word

ch lay beneath them. Arsdale used to sit beside her in these solitudes and read aloud by the hour from the poets in his sweet musical voice. At such times she wondered more than ever what he h

an Arsdale-like

as as careful of her as Jacques was of her father. Ben was kind to her, though during the latter years he had grown a bit out of her life. This had worried

ne here with Ben and he-he does not seem to act quite himself, I want you

knowing well to

face had

is no better I wish you to promise that you will not live in this house with

, Da

omi

rie gathered her into her arms and held her tight. She stared aghast at a world which frightened her by its emptiness. At her side stood Ben, his lips twitching, and in his eyes that haunting fear which always foreran the father's struggles. A month later the boy did not come home

nite multitude of the indifferent who surrounded her, he had leaped and within these few hours made her debtor to him for her life, and now for partial relief from a strain which was worse than sudden death might have been. In spite of other torments it