settlers of Aga-wam by slaughtering their cossets, eh ? Well,
well ! Your mother shall hear of this, sir."

" Something must die," returned Holyoke, with his merry
voice and sparkling smile, " to give room for the new life
which I feel in being here — here by the side of your daugh-
ter."

Mr. Pynchon looked at Mary, expectmg to see her face
blossoming with blushes, but there she stood, self-possessed,
calm, and happy, hke a queen newly crowned. To her, the
past was gone. The fear, the bashfulness, and the blush,
that had walked hand in hand with every thought of Hol-
yoke, were among the things forgotten, and never more to
be. In the few rapturous minutes she had spent with her
lover, although other hearts than his were beating near her,
and other eyes gazing upon her, she had taken counsel of
assurance. Her heart had moved to a higher plane of emo-
tion, and her spirit was transferred to a sphere of purer light
and stronger faith. As in a dissolving view, a scene of
spring, bright with the dews of rosy morning, and wonder-
fully silent with its laughing waters, melts with strange
identities into broad trees, sunny rocks, calmly basking
landscapes, and heaven-reflecting lakes — so, in the light of
assured love, and from canvas painted over with new hopes,
new emotions, and new spiritual revelations, looked Mary
Pynchon stiU, but it was Mary Pynchon transfigured. The
angel of life had slipped the golden clasp of his book, and
turned for her another leaf. She hardly knew it — ^nay, she
but dimly mistrusted it. There was nothing unnatural in
the new phase of her feelings — nothing that seemed un-
wonted in her new experience. In fact, she had never felt
more unembarrassed or content. Her heart had found its
home — its satisfaction — and, as she stood there, in the pre-
sence of her father and her lover, there went up from the
depths of that heart an unuttered, " Oh ! God ! I thank
Thee for this hour !"



THE BAT PATH. 91

Some minutes before Mr. Pynchon concluded his inter-
view, the villagers and the two companions of Holyoke had
started on their way down the hiH. Holyoke insisted that
Mr. 