On the porch she stopped and looked back into the street as she might have looked back at the door of a prison. The negro driver, having placed her bag in the hall, stood waiting expectantly, with his hat in his hand, and his shining black eyes on her face; and opening her purse, she paid him, before walking past the maid over the threshold. Ahead of her stretched the staircase which she would go up and down for the rest of her life. On the right, she could look into the open door of the dining-room, and opposite to it, she knew that the lamp was lit and the fire burning in Oliver's study. Then, while a wave of despair, like a mortal sickness, swept over her, her eyes fell on an envelope which lay on the little silver card-tray on the hall table, and as she tore it open, she saw that it contained but a single line: "Dearest mother, I am coming home to you, "HARRY." THE END BY THE SAME AUTHOR THE MILLER OF OLD CHURCH THE ROMANCE OF A PLAIN MAN THE ANCIENT LAW THE WHEEL OF LIFE THE DELIVERANCE THE BATTLEGROUND THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE PHASES OF AN INFERIOR PLANET THE DESCENDANT THE FREEMAN, AND OTHER POEMS THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N. Y.