"The air was still, save a humming in the very tree-tops that must have
been only echoes tangled there, breezes that once blew past. The long
grape-arbor at the end of the lawn looked viny and cool. I walked up and
down under the green archway, until Chloe's words summoned me.
"Mary was 'better,' she said; 'a few days, and she should feel quite
strong, she hoped'; but she looked weary, and I only waited a little
while, until her father and mother came in, and then I went.
"Mr. McKey was sitting in the door of the little white office. He came
out to meet me ere I had reached the street,--asked if I was on my way
home.
"I said 'Yes,' with the lazy sort of languor born of the indolence of
the hour.
"'Have you energy enough for a walk to the sea-shore?' he asked.
"It had been my wish that very day. I had not been there since Mary's
illness. I hesitated in giving an answer. Abraham would be home at
sunset.
"'Don't go, if it is only to please me,' he said.
"'I am going to please myself,' I answered; 'only I wish to be at home
on Abraham's coming.
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