The Opened Shutters. Clara Louise Burnham

took the money without smiling; but he was glad to know about the farm.

      Miss Martha boarded her car with a heart that was questioning but beginning to hope, and her mind was busy piecing together the evidence.

      Mr. Dunham had left her for hours. He had been unable to return Judge Trent's money. He knew where Sylvia was.

      Her misery gradually abated, and before she reached her gate she began to wonder if her bonnet had been on straight during the recent interview.

      CHAPTER VI

      SYLVIA'S CALLER

      When Dunham's telegram reached Sylvia Lacey she was for the time being powerless to disobey it. The excitement and disappointment of the interview with her aunt had resulted in a feverish attack which, though slight, destroyed her ambition to do more than lie on her narrow bed and meditate upon the situation.

      She could not write to the friends at home who had pictured such a pleasant future for her with her Boston relatives. She was not able even to go out and buy a "Dramatic Mirror" to discover where Nat's company would be playing the coming week.

      She lay white and slender in her black wrapper, and listlessly fingered the telegram, which was now two days old. It read:—