The judge bent his head, but it was in nodding not in assent, for he had not heard a word that his nephew said.  And William saw nothing but the nod with a sidewise glance of aversion at the signs of his uncle’s weakness.

It was the boy who heard and saw everything, and remembered and weighed it, with a feeling of alarm that he knew no reason for, and could not explain to himself.  It was his instinct to dislike anything that William Pressley said or did, and to distrust everything in which Philip Alston was concerned.  He looked round at Ruth to see if she shared his feeling, and saw that she was gazing at William Pressley with troubled eyes.

They had scarcely exchanged a word since their quarrel, although she had made many timid advances toward a reconciliation.  It was conscience and not love which had moved her in all that she had done, but this fact was not yet clear to her own mind.  She was beginning to see it, but she tried to shut her eyes to the truth, being a loyal soul, and firm in her high regard for the man whom she had promised to marry.  There had been no opportunity to tell him what she felt; and she was still more distressed to see that he avoided seeing her alone.  It was of this cloud between them that she was thinking now, and it was that which shadowed her face.  She had not noted very keenly what was going forward about her.  She had shrunk from the judge’s excitement and agitation, as she always did from all violence; but the meaning of his words had not impressed her deeply or even clearly.  Her gentle nature and her tranquil life were too far from strife, cruelty, and crime for her to grasp the full purport of the story.  She had heard William Pressley speak of telling Philip Alston, without giving the matter a thought.  It was right in her eyes that he should be told everything.  The mention of his name caused her to think that it would be well to tell him of her quarrel with William and of her regret and self-reproach.  He was wise and kind, and would know what was right and best to do.  Perhaps he might even see some way by which the engagement could be broken without wrong or hurt to William’s feelings.  A measure of peace came with the hope, and she was presently gazing into the fire, dreaming more than thinking, and feeling assured that the doctor would stop when he went by on the next morning.

The boy saw how absorbed she was, and felt that there was no use in waiting to speak to her, to tell her of the vague alarm which had seized him.  And then what was there to tell her or any one?  He would only be laughed at for fancying things, as he often had been before, and remembering this, he crept off to his own cabin and went to bed.  But he could not go to sleep for a long time, and when he awoke at dawn the formless dread was still dark in his mind, like some fearsome shape behind an impenetrable curtain.  And there it stayed all the day through, never quite coming out into the light, but growing steadily larger and darker and more terrible as the long heavy hours wore on.  When—­at last—­the dusk began to creep down the river, he grew so restless in his nameless misery that he wandered into the forest, and there met the doctor riding along the path on the way to his lonely cabin.