As she sank back in the corner, the old tide of revolt rose high within her; but the flood to-day was chill with fear of failure, and bitter with the memory of those others who had been overwhelmed. Val had herself given up all "chances" for this one that she was reaching out for to-day. She was here to put that one to proof, and-- Ethan was at the door! In that first instant of his non-recognition her heart turned sick, so cold he looked, and so remote, forbidding even. She got up and came forward. Ethan cried out in astonishment, throwing down his hat: "_You!_ No, not really!" "Yes." He took both her hands, and looked into her face. Had she really thought him cold? Turning, he glanced about the room, as if to assure himself they were alone. She disengaged her hands. "Come out and walk; I don't like it here," she said. He looked at her reflectively, and yet with a kind of smouldering excitement. "We'll get a victoria, and drive out to the country." He led the way down-stairs. "But how on earth have you managed it?" he said. "I didn't manage, I just came." "Grandmamma is with you?" "Oh no." "Who, then?" "Nobody." "She hasn't let you come alone?" He stopped. "Oh, it's all right," she said, a little impatiently. "I've come to visit an old school-friend." They chose one of the carriages in front of the hotel, and drove rapidly out of town. She shrank back into her corner, feeling his eyes too keen upon her; but when by chance she encountered them, she would have been less than woman if she had not been reassured by the admiration in their kindling depths. "I suppose I'm changed too," he said, smiling. "Y-yes; you're a little more alarming than you used to be." "Oh, really!" he laughed. "I suppose the change in me is a different one?" He nodded. "You've kept your word." "My word?" "Don't you remember telling me that I was rather good-looking at that time, but the difference between us was that you'd improve and that I'd grow repellent and plain if I wasn't very careful?" "I _never_ said such a--" "Oh yes. You used to be a wise child. Are you a wise woman?" "Not enough to hurt," she said, with a little grimace. He asked about Mrs. Gano and Emmie, and the bedridden An' Jerusha. The year before, Venus had married the mulatto postman, and Val, at Ethan's suggestion, had bought them a cottage, where they all lived very happily. Val told him of the advent of the twins. "What are you doing here?" she inquired, presently. "Political business." "I suppose you think I wouldn't understand that." "I think it would probably bore you." "Why bore me more than any other girls?" "I didn't say so. But most young ladies of your age--" "I'll soon be twenty-three; Julia is only twenty-four." She could have bit her tongue out for her maladroitness. "Julia? Ah, how is Julia?" "This is pretty; let us stop here." "All right. Driver, just pull up in that shade and wait for us."