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“Miss Kellar, your father is fast regaining strength. To-day I find that he will soon be able to leave his bed.”

The girl stopped, and, looking at him, answered:

“Thou hast my prayers and my thanks, thou stranger in Zanah.”

“If I have done anything to deserve your thanks, I am grateful, Miss Kellar.”

The women had stopped at a little distance from them, and he could see that they were muttering something among themselves. Presently one of them spoke:

“Sir, thou art addressing the prophetess of Zanah with the vain title used in the world outside. If thou must speak to her, thou shouldst call her Walda Kellar.”

Everett was embarrassed. He stood gazing at the girl, who smiled upon him quite naturally.

“Yea, thou shouldst call me Walda,” she said. “Thou knowest that in the Bible the men and women addressed one another by their simple names.”

“Then, if I am to follow the custom of Zanah, you must call me not stranger, but Stephen,” he said. And she answered:

“Yea, Stephen, already thou seemest scarcely a stranger.”