Most men would have written to Alice before going to see her, but Craig was not like most men, and some subtle intuition told him that he would succeed. Arrived at Rocky Point he had no difficulty in ascertaining where Miss Alice Tracy lived, and was soon knocking at the door of the farmhouse, which stood a little way from the village. It was opened by Mrs. Wood, Alice’s Aunt Mary, who felt somewhat abashed at the sight of a strange gentleman asking for her niece. Glancing over her shoulder at the clock, she said, “It’s after four. She should be home pretty soon, though she sometimes stays to tidy up and make copies for the children. Maybe you’ll find her there, and maybe you’ll meet her. The road is straight from here to the school house. You can’t miss it.” “Thanks,” and Craig turned to go, when Mrs. Wood said to him, “If you don’t find her who shall I say called?” “Craig Mason, from Boston,” was the reply, and Craig walked rapidly away towards the village and the school house. “Craig Mason; that’s the man Helen Tracy jilted, and now he’s come to see Alice,” Mrs. Wood said to her husband, who had just come in from the barn. “Well, what is there to flutter you so?” the more phlegmatic Uncle Ephraim asked, putting down the eggs he had been gathering and counting them one by one. “I ain’t in a flutter,” she replied, “but if Alice brings him home to supper, and she will of course, I mean to have things decent, and do you make a fire in the settin’ room the first thing, and I’ll make some soda biscuits. Lucky I baked yesterday. I’ve cake enough, and a custard pie, and I’ll brile a steak. He must be hungry after travellin’ from Boston.” She had settled the bill of fare, and while her husband made the fire in the sitting room she proceeded to carry out her hospitable plans. Meanwhile Craig was making his way along the street, meeting several children with dinner pails and baskets, whom he guessed to be scholars. School must be out and he hurried on, while those he met looked curiously after him, wondering who he was and wondering still more when they saw him pass up the walk to the school house. When Alice received Helen’s letter announcing her engagement to Craig she was not surprised, as she had expected it. The tone of the letter struck her unpleasantly, but it was like Helen to write in that vein and she thought there might be more heart in the matter than appeared on the surface. The proposition that she should accompany her cousin to Europe made her pulse throb with delight for a moment, and then her spirits fell. She knew Helen would be kind and considerate, and Craig too, but——; and then she came to a stand, and as many others have done yielded finally to the inexorable _but_, and gave up what had been the dream of her life. She had commenced a letter to Helen, congratulating her on her engagement and thanking her for her kind offer, which she must decline.