“Helen, if one could weep as quietly as this rain falls, and keep the face as unwrinkled as the glass, it would be pretty to weep.”

“Is it hard for you to cry?”

“I can’t remember; it is so long since.”

My ear caught the sound of a step on the piazza.

“Who is that?” she asked.

“It is a man.”

“Morgeson?”

“Morgeson.”

“Cassandra?”

“Cassandra.”

“I can cry,” and Helen covered her face.

“Cry away, then.  Give me a fierce shower of tears, with thunder and lightning between, if you like.  Don’t sop, and soak, and drizzle.”

The step came close to the window; it was not in harmony with the rain and darkness, but with the hot beating of my heart.

“We are breaking up,” called Mr. Somers.  “Mr. Bancroft’s carriage is ready, I am bid to say.  It is inky outside.”

“Yes,” said Helen, “I am quite ready.”

“There are a dozen chaises in the yard; Mr. Morgeson is there, and lanterns.  He is at home among horses, I believe.”

“Do you like horses?” I asked.

“Not in the least.”

Somebody called Helen.

“Good-night, Cass.”

“Good-night; keep out of the rain.”

“Good-night, Miss Morgeson,” said Mr. Somers, when she had gone.  “Good-night and good-morning.  My acquaintance with you has begun; it will never end.  You thought me a boy; I am just your age.”

“‘Never,’ is a long word, Boy Somers.”

“It is.”

It rained all night; I wearied of its monotonous fall; if I slept it turned into a voice which was pent up in a letter which I could not open.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Alice was unusually gay the next morning.  She praised Mr. Somers, and could not imagine what had been the cause of his being expelled from the college.

“Don’t you like him, Cassandra?  His family are unexceptionable.”

“So is he, I believe, except in his fists.  But how did you learn that his family were unexceptionable?”

“Charles inquired in Boston, and heard that his mother was one of the greatest heiresses in Belem.”

“Did you enjoy last night, Alice?”

“Yes, I am fond of whist parties.  You noticed that Charles has not a remarkable talent that way.  Did he speak to Mr. Somers at all, while you played?  I was too busy to come in.  By the by, I must go now, and see if the parlor is in order.”

I followed her with my bonnet in hand, for it was school time.  She looked about, then went up to the mantel, and taking out the candle-ends from the candelabra, looked in the glass, and said, “I am a fright this morning.”

“Am I?” I asked over her shoulder, for I was nearly a head taller.

“No; you are too young to look jaded in the morning.  Your eyes are as clear as a child’s; and how blue they are.”