“I have not thought about it,” the young girl replied, evasively. “Then you will be astonished when you learn who the person was--the very last one you or any one else would have thought of,” declared Mrs. Rodney. “You make me feel quite curious, mamma,” said Aline, with a faint smile, and a tone so listless it belied her assertion of interest. “I do not suppose, if you guessed all day, that you would come at all near the truth,” pursued Mrs. Rodney. “I suppose not,” answered Aline, laughingly. She leaned back wearily, and watched the leaping flames of the fire with a smothered sigh. Oh, if only her mother would but drop the subject. But Mrs. Rodney had no intention of doing so. “Indeed you would not,” she went on. “You would sooner think of any one else that you ever knew, though indeed you never knew this gentleman!” “Then it was a stranger,” said Aline, seeing that an answer of some sort was expected, and feeling a guilty consciousness of deceit, for she had an intuitive knowledge that Mr. Delaney had saved her life. She had caught a glimpse of his darkly handsome face behind the tree Max had pointed out to her just as she crashed through the thin ice into the river. “Yes, it was a stranger, although you have seen him a thousand times, and although you know his name. Prepare to be surprised, my dear. Only think, it was our unsociable neighbor, Mr. Delaney!” Aline knew that she was expected to appear greatly surprised, but to have saved her life she could not have enacted such a fraud. She was too frank and honest. She could only falter out, embarrassedly: “Mr. Delaney!” “Yes! I knew you would be surprised. Every one was,” said Mrs. Rodney. “I was surprised, and, to tell the truth, Aline, I was proud, too. Just to think, after the mean way the Chester people had treated us, that the richest and grandest man in the place should risk his life to save yours! Oh, how grateful I feel to him for his kindness!” “Grateful!” murmured Aline, in an indescribable tone. “Yes, indeed!” cried Mrs. Rodney. “Why, my dear, you might have perished for any help those other men would have given you--that is, they did bring a rope, but that would not have been any good if Mr. Delaney had not gone into the water and brought you up from the bottom.” “It might have been better had he left me there,” the girl murmured, half to herself. Mrs. Rodney shuddered at the bare thought. “Oh, how glad I am that he did not,” she exclaimed. “I feel like going down on my knees to thank him for his bravery!” “Thank _him_! Thank Oran Delaney? Oh, mamma!” cried Aline, with irrepressible agitation. “Why, yes, my dear; of course we should thank him,” cried Mrs. Rodney, “and yet, strange as it seems, your papa and I are at a loss to know how to do so. You see, he is so strange. Although he saved your life, he has never called or sent to inquire how you are. And yet, one would suppose he would take that much interest in you, seeing that he risked his life for you.”