Miss Hill came to the rescue with pleasant chat and most interesting news to the exiles. She had intended coming out to the cottage for ever so long, but the weather and one thing or another falling on a Saturday, had prevented until to-day. How pretty the little home! Did not the Colonel agree with her that it was so sweet, so cosy, and picturesquely situated? Did they have chickens? What pleasure to have chickens, and flowers, too! Of course they had heard about Mr. Harry White and the widow, about the dissension in Doctor Wallace's church. And Margaret Maynard was far from well, and Helen Wrapp had gone back home to her mother, and Bessy Bell had grown into a tall ravishingly beautiful girl and had distracted her mother by refusing a millionaire, and seemed very much in love with young Dalrymple. "And I've the worst class of girls I ever had," went on Miss Hill. "The one I had last year was a class of angels compared to what I have now. I reproved one girl whose mother wrote me that as long as Middleville had preachers like Doctor Wallace and teachers like myself there wasn't much chance of a girl being good. So I'm going to give up teaching." The little schoolmistress straightened up in her chair and looked severe. Colonel Pepper shifted uneasily, bent his glance for the hundredth time on his shiny shoes and once more had recourse to his huge handkerchief and heated brow. "Well, Colonel, it seems good to see you once more," put in Lane. "Tell me about yourself. How do you pass the time?" "Same old story, Daren, same old way, a game of billiards now and then, and a little game of cards. But I'm more lonely than I used to be." "Why, you never were lonely!" exclaimed Lane. "Oh, yes indeed I was, always," protested the Colonel. "A little game of cards," mused Lane. "How well I remember! You used to have some pretty big games, too." "Er--yes--you see--once in a while, very seldom, just for fun," he replied. "How about your old weakness? Hope you've conquered that," went on Lane, mercilessly. The Colonel was thrown into utter confusion. And when Miss Hill turned terrible eyes upon him, poor Pepper looked as if he wanted to sink through the porch. Lane took pity on him and carried him off to the garden and the river bank, where he became himself again. They talked for a while, but neither mentioned the subject that had once drawn them together. For both of them a different life had begun. A little while afterward Mel and Lane watched the bright figure and the slight dark one go up the hillside cityward. "What do you know about that!" ejaculated Lane for the tenth time. "Hush!" said Mel, and she touched his lips with a soft exquisite gesture.