“Not long. Only--only a few moments.” “You still have the advantage of me. Who are you?” “Why, I'm Harriet,” she said simply, and looked up. “Just so. 'Received, 1877.' How old were you then?” “Why, I was eight.” “Just so. Don't tell lies, Harriet. You've been freezing a long while.” She drew her cloak closer over the thin white linen of her gown with shaking hand. “I don't understand. I'm very cold. Why didn't you come before? It has been so long waiting.” III. The draft began to roar and the dampers to glow. She crept in front of the glow. He drew a chair and sat down close behind her. “Why didn't you come before?” The question was startling, for Sebastian was only conscious of a lack of reason for coming. If David Sebastian had left him the farm he would have heard from it, and being prosperous, he had not cared. But the question seemed to imply some strong assumption and further knowledge. “You'd better tell me about it.” “About what? At the beginning?” “Aren't you anything except 'Received, Harriet'?” “Oh, I hadn't any father or mother when Mr. Sebastian brought me here. Is that what you mean? But he taught me to say 'Harriet Sebastian,' and a great many things he taught me. Didn't you know? And about his life and what he wanted you to do? Because, of course, we talked about you nearly always in the time just before he died. He said you would be sure to come, but he died, don't you see? only a few years after, and that disappointed him. He gave me the picture and said, 'He'll come, and you'll know him by this,' and he said, 'He will come poor and miserable. My only son, so I leave him to you; and so, as I did, you will pray for him twice each day.' It was just like that, 'Tell Charles there is no happiness but in duty. Tell him I found it so.' It was a night like this when he died, and Kezzy was asleep in her chair out here, and I sat by the bed. Then he told me I would pay him all in that way by doing what he meant to do for you. I was so little, but I seemed to understand that I was to live for it, as he had lived to help free the slaves. Don't you see? Then he began calling, 'Charles! Charles!' as if you were somewhere near, and I fell asleep, and woke and lay still and listened to the wind; and when I tried to get up I couldn't, because he held my hair, and he was dead. But why didn't you come?” “It looks odd enough now,” Sebastian admitted, and wondered at the change from still impassiveness, pale and cool silence, to eager speech, swift question, lifted and flushed face.