He at once separated them with a half bitter smile, yet after a
moment's hesitation, and with his old sense of attempting to revive a
forgotten association, he tried to re-peruse them. But they did not
even restrain his straying thoughts, nor prevent him from detecting a
singular occurrence. The nearly level sun was, after its old fashion,
already hanging the shadowed tassels of the pine boughs like a garland
on the wall. But the shadow seemed to have suddenly grown larger
and more compact, and he turned, with a quick consciousness of some
interposing figure at the pane. Nothing however was to be seen. Yet so
impressed had he been that he walked to the door and stepped from the
porch to discover the intruder. The clearing was deserted, there was a
slight rustling in the adjacent laurels, but no human being was visible.
Nevertheless the old feeling of security and isolation which had never
been quite the same since Mr. McKinstry's confession, seemed now to have
fled the sylvan school-house altogether, and he somewhat angrily closed
his desk, locked it, and determined to go home.
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