wn sufferings, even when the crushing grief was
beating her down with the full force of merciless blows. Her thought
for the suffering of her one remaining child was supreme.

The man's hands gripped till his nails almost cut the hard flesh of his
palms. He had no answer for her words. It was beyond his power to
answer such words.

He turned with a movement suggesting precipitate flight. But his going
was arrested by the voice he knew and loved so well.

"What--what--will break her young heart?"

Jessie was standing just within the room, and the door was closed
behind her. Her eyes were on the drawn face of her mother, but,
somehow, it seemed to Kars that her words were addressed to him.

In the agony of his feelings he was about to answer. Perhaps
recklessly. For somehow the dreadful nature of his errand was telling
on a temper unused to such a task. But once again the fortitude of the
elder woman displayed itself, and he was saved from himself.

"I'll tell you, Jessie, when--he's gone." And the handsome, tragic
eyes looked squarely into the man's.

For a moment the full significance of the mother's words remained
obscure to the man. Then the courage, the strength of them made
themselves plain. He realized that this grief-stricken woman was
invincible. Nothing--just nothing could break her indomitable spirit.
In the midst of all her suffering she desired to spare him, to spare
her one remaining child.

There could be no reply to such a woman. Nor could he answer the
girl--now. He came towards her. Resting one great hand on the oilskin
covering her shoulders, he looked down into her questioning, troubled
eyes with infinite tenderness.

"Jessie, there's things I can say to you I can't say even to your
mother. I want to say them now, with her looking on. I can't put all
I feel into words. Those things don't come easy to me. You see, I've
never had anything beyond my own concerns to look after, ever before in
my life. Other folks never kind of seemed to figger with me. Maybe
I'm selfish. It seems that way. But now--why, now that's all changed.
Things I always guessed mattered don't matter any longer. And why?
Why? Because there's just two women in the world got right into my
heart, and everything else has had to make way for them. Do you get
me, child? Maybe you don't. Well, it's just that all I am or ever
hope to be is for you. It don't matter the miles between us, or the
season. W