all I ask you to remember: that my reason for telling you is to
save the honor of my husband himself, and of you, dear heart, and of--of
my child, you know. For, mother, every innocent thing I do is being
woven into a net of criminating evidence. Sooner or later it's certain
to catch me fast and give me over, you and me and--and baby, to public
shame."

As they went toward the arbor door Isabel warily hushed, but her mother
said: "There's no one to overhear, honey-blossom; Minnie's at your house
with Sarah."

But neither was there more to be said. The daughter shut herself out,
and stood alone on the doorstep pondering what she had done. For she had
acted as well as spoken, and, without knowledge of Leonard's move, was
calling Godfrey home herself. Her mother was to send the dispatch in the
morning.

[Illustration: "But to know every day and hour that I'm watched."]

So standing and distressfully musing, she heard the click of the
Byingtons' door as Ruth left Leonard on the porch. But her thought went
after Arthur. Where was he? That he had honestly gone where he had said
he was going she painfully doubted. She stirred to move on, but had not
taken a step when a feminine cry of terror set her blood leaping and
sent her flying down the arbor, and where the two paths crossed she and
Leonard met at such a speed that only by seizing her with both his hands
did he avoid trampling her down. The scream was repeated again and
again.

"It's Minnie!" cried Isabel as they sprang down the path to the mill
pond; and Leonard, outrunning her, called back,--

"We'll get her out! She's not gone under!"

The next moment he, and then she, were on the scene. Minnie stood on
the firmer ice away from the bank, moaning in continued agitation, but
already rescued. It was Arthur Winslow who had saved her.

Now he gained the bank with the dripping girl, where he yielded her to
his wife, and without a word from him, from Isabel, or from Leonard to
any one but the incessantly talking maid, the four hu

Martha Finley (1828 - 1909) was a teacher and author of numerous works, the most well known being the 28 volume Elsie Dinsmore series which was published over a span of 38 years. The daughter of Presbyterian minister Dr. James Brown Finley and his wife and cousin Maria Theresa Brown Finley, she was born on April 26th, 1828 in Chillicothe, Ohio. Finley wrote many of her books under the psodonym Martha Farquharson. She died in 1909 in Elkton, Maryland, where she moved in 1876.

Anonymous may refer to: Anonymus, the Latin spelling, may refer to: