"Are you sure, quite sure, that he meant that?"
"Positive and certain, my pretty."
"And you do not think I shall be wrong to accept his bounty for her sake?"
"Surely not. It would be quarrelling with the dispensations of Providence."
"I feel so oppressed," cried the girl, laying her hand on her bosom; "there is a weight here as though I were sorry and not glad. If he had given me a little I could have taken it and have been thankful, but so much crushes me somehow."
"How about the cottage now?" interposed Caleb jocosely, trying to rally her, but she stopped him with quivering lips.
"Hush! I can bear no more, not to-night. Did you say the lawyer was coming? Let me go away for a little, I feel sick and giddy, and I want to understand it all."
"Then run away, my dearie, and I will send for you when he comes; there's a bit of a letter or a paper that he wants to give you."
"She is as cold and white as a bit of marble; I wonder what's come to the pretty creature," he muttered when he was left alone. "She is not heart glad, I can see that. She has a scared look in her face, as though she has lost her foothold somehow."
Queenie had regained her calmness by the time the lawyer made his appearance. She listened to his explanations and instructions silently but with composure, only her compressed lips and closely-locked hands showed the intense strain of feeling under the quietude of her manner.