All his love was gone with little Nan.

Only the thought of the master, and the terrible reckoning that lay before him, sent a thrill through his heart.

'I shall be there at the judgment,' he muttered half aloud, looking up to the cold, cloudy sky, almost as if he expected to see the sign of the coming of the Lord.

But there was no sign there; and, after gazing for a minute or two, he turned in the direction of the cabin, where he could see a glimmer of the light within through the chinks of the door and shutter.
Bess and Martha were still sitting hand in hand as Miss Anne had left them; but they both started up as Stephen entered, pale and ghastly from his long conflict with grief and temptation on the hills.

He was come home conquered, though he did not know it; and the expression of his face was one of hatred and vengeance, instead of sorrow and love.