e dishes, sharing
equally. They did the out-of-door duties of caring for the scanty live
stock, and at last Nella-Rose went to her tiny room under the eaves,
while Marg lay down upon the living-room couch.

When everything was at rest once more Nella-Rose stole to the low window
of her chamber and, kneeling, looked forth at the peaceful moonlit
scene. How still and white it was and how safe and strong the high hills
looked! What had happened? Why, nothing _could_ happen and yet--and
yet--Then Nella-Rose closed her eyes and waited. With all her might she
tried to force the "good, kind face" to materialize, but to no purpose.
Suddenly an owl hooted hideously and, like a guilty thing, the girl by
the window crept back to bed.

Owls were very wise and they could see things in the dark places with
their wide-open eyes! Just then Nella-Rose could not have borne any
investigation of her throbbing heart.

CHAPTER III

Lynda Kendall closed her desk and wheeled about in her chair with a
perplexed expression on her strong, handsome face. Generally speaking,
she went her way with courage and conviction, but since Conning
Truedale's breakdown, an element in her had arisen that demanded
recognition and she had yet to learn how to control it and insist upon
its subjection.

Her life had been a simple one on the whole, but one requiring from
early girlhood the constant use of her faculties. Whatever help she had
had was gained from the dependence of others upon her, not hers upon
them. She was so strong and sweet-souled that to give was a joy, it was
a joy too, for them that received. That she was ever tired and longed
for strong arms to uphold her rarely occurred to any one except,
perhaps, William Truedale, the invalid uncle of Conning.

At this juncture of Lynda's career, she shrank from William Truedale as
she never had before. Had Conning died, she knew she would never have
seen the old man again. She believed that his incapacity for
understanding Conning--his rigid, unfeeling dealing with him--had been
the prime factor in the physical breakdown of the younger man. All
along she had hoped and believed that her hold upon old William Truedale
would, in the final reckoning, bring good results; for that reason, and
a secret one that no one suspected, she kept to her course. She paid
regular visits to the old man--made him dependent upon her, though he
never permitted her to suspect this. Always her purpose had centred u