"Is this Mrs. Philbrick?" came in clear, firm tones, out of the darkness behind them; and, in a second more, Mercy had turned and looked up into Stephen White's face.

How many times in after years did Stephen recall with laughter his first impressions of Mercy Philbrick, and wonder how he could have argued so unhesitatingly that a woman who travelled with only one small valise could not be good-looking.

"I am very sorry I frightened you so, Mrs. Philbrick," said Stephen, quite unconscious of the true source of her confusion.

"But, Mrs. Philbrick," he said eagerly, "pray tell me what you think of the house.

Stephen went on, beginning to be half-angry with this little, unknown woman from Cape Cod, who looked with the contemptuous glance of a princess upon the house in which he and his mother dwelt, "You are quite at liberty to throw up your lease, Mrs. Philbrick, if you choose.

" "Why, can you help it, Mrs. Philbrick?" asked Stephen, in a wondering tone.

" "Mrs. Philbrick," exclaimed Stephen, earnestly: "please come into the house, and speak to my mother a moment.

But he did not; and it was with a bright and eager face that he threw open the door, and said in the most cordial tone, "Mother, I have brought Mrs. Philbrick to see you.

" "How do you do, Mrs. Philbrick?" was the rejoinder, in a tone and with a look so chilling that poor Mercy's heart sank within her.

She listened with the same stony, unresponsive look on her face, never taking the stony, unresponsive eyes from his face; and, as soon as he stopped speaking, she said in an equally stony voice, "Mrs. Philbrick, will you be so good as to take off your bonnet and take tea with us?

In this fine fibre of loyalty, Stephen White and Mercy Philbrick were alike: though it was in him more an exalted sentiment; in her, simply an organic necessity.

If there is such a thing in a human being as organic honesty,an honesty which makes a lie not difficult, but impossible, just as it is impossible for men to walk on ceilings like flies, or to breathe in water like fishes,Mercy Philbrick had it.

Mercy Philbrick was full of such intolerance, on this one point of honesty.

There were yet to enter into Mercy Philbrick's life a new light and a new force, by the help of which she would see clearly and stand firm.

Stephen White, however, had more than once during these four weeks quickened his pace to overtake some slender figure clad in black, never doubting that it was Mercy Philbrick, until he came so near that his eyes were forced to tell him the truth.

Had his mother gone already thus far in her thoughts about Mercy Philbrick?

Mrs. White did not speak for a moment or two; then she said, in a slow and deliberate manner, as if reflecting on a problem,"You enjoy Mrs. Philbrick's society, then, do you, Stephen?

"Marty," said she one day, "have you ever seen Mrs. Philbrick come into the house without somethin' green in her hands?

He saw them on fhe first instant after opening the door; he knew in the same instant that the hands of Mercy Philbrick must have placed them there; but, also, in that same brief instant came to him an involuntary impulse to pretend that he did not observe them; to wait till his mother should have spoken of them first, that he might know whether she were pleased or not by the gift.

Mercy Philbrick, under the same circumstances, would have replied, "Oh, yes, I saw them as soon as I came in.

Stephen had yet to learn the magic power which Mercy Philbrick had to compel the liking even of people who did not choose to like her.

How this strong sentiment towards Mercy Philbrick had taken possession of him he could not tell.

"Oh, Mrs. Philbrick!"

Bending towards her, he said suddenly, "Mrs. Philbrick, your face is the very loveliest face I have ever seen in my life.

" "Never again, Mrs. Philbrick?" he said,he could almost have said "Mercy,"and looked at her with a gaze of whose intentness he was hardly aware.