careful examination. "The most we can do is to keep her quiet. I will administer an opiate, and I think nature will do the rest. Meanwhile, somebody must go after that recalcitrant bridegroom. She would soon recover her tone if she could lose faith in him altogether. It is suspense that kills."
"Brother Joseph started across the Cascade Mountains after him early in the afternoon," the Captain explained. " He declared that nothing but foul play or some unavoidable accident could have detained so ardent a suitor."
At the hour of midnight, when the Ranch of the Whispering Firs was wrapped in silence, Jean awoke, dismissed Susannah, and rose from her bed.
"O my God," she cried inwardly, "if it be possible, let this cup pass from both of us! I know, O Spirit of Good, that my own has not, of his own accord, deserted his counterpart, his other self. Give me strength equal to my day! Let me not fail him now, when I know he needs me most.
"I must have been in your presence, Ashton, while my body was asleep," she said half audibly. "For, in spite of my seeming duty to be miserable, I cannot be unhappy or hopeless. I seem to have been on a journey; but my recollection of it is indistinct and disjointed."
She went to the window and looked out into the night. The clouds had rolled away, the wind had ceased, and the silent stars were looking down.
