"Why, what do you mean, Alfaretta? Of course Mr. Ward will see your father. I hope your lumbago is better, Elder Dean?" Mr. Dean did not notice her question. "Certainly he will see me. Come, now, open the gate; be spry." "You can't see him!" cried Alfaretta, bursting into tears. "I say he won't see you, so there!" Her mistress looked at her in astonishment, but her father put his big hand over the gate, and, wrenching the little latch open, strode up to the front door of the parsonage. Helen and her maid looked at each other; Alfaretta's face working convulsively to keep back the tears, and her mistress's eyes full of disapproval. "Why did you say that, Alfaretta?" she said. "It was not true; you knew Mr. Ward could see your father." Then she turned back to her planting. Alfaretta followed her, and, kneeling down by the border, began to grub at the intruding blades of grass, stopping to put her hand up to her eyes once in a while, which made her face singularly streaked and muddy. "What is the matter, Alfaretta?" Helen asked, at last, coldly. She did not mean to be unkind, but she was troubled at the girl's untruthfulness. Alfaretta wailed. "Tell me," Helen said, putting her hand lightly on her shoulder. "Are you crying because you said what was not true?" "'T ain't that!" sobbed Alfaretta. "I wish, then, you would either stop, or go into the house." Helen's voice was stern, and Alfaretta looked at her with reproachful eyes; then covering her face with her hands, she rocked backwards and forwards, and wept without restraint. "I'm afraid--I'm afraid he's going to take me away from here!" "Take you away?" Helen said, surprised. "Why? Is the work too hard?" "No--no ma'am," Alfaretta answered, choking. "I'll go and see him at once," Helen said. "Oh, no!" Alfaretta cried, catching her mistress's skirt with grimy hands, "don't go; 't won't do any good." "Don't be foolish," Helen remonstrated, smiling; "of course I must speak to him. If your father thinks there is too much work, he must tell me, and I will arrange it differently." She stooped, and took the hem of her cambric gown from between the girl's fingers, and then went quickly into the house. She rapped lightly at the study door. "John, I must come in a moment, please." She heard a chair pushed back, and John's footstep upon the floor. He opened the door, and stood looking at her with strange, unseeing eyes. "Go away, Helen," he said hoarsely, without waiting for her to speak, for she was dumb with astonishment at his face,--"go away, my darling."