Even when she returned to Maude's room, and sat down beside her couch, her thoughts were far away, and everything which had ever come to her concerning her babyhood came to her now, crowding upon her so fast that once it seemed to her that the top of her head was lifting, and she put up her hand to hold it in its place.

And still she staid on with Maude, although two or three times she arose to go, but something kept her there--chance, if one chooses to call by that name the something which at times moulds us to its will and influences our whole lives.

Something kept her there until the morning was merged into noon and the noon into the middle of the afternoon, and then she could stay no longer.

The hour had come when she must go, for the other force which was to be the instrument in changing all her future was astir, and she must go to keep her unconscious appointment with it..