d--and there is so much for me to do when he is gone. He has
been such a kind helper all these years. His refined taste has meant so
much to me in the study of painting, and I need him now."

Thaine gave a low whistle of surprise. Leigh's eyes were full of tears,
but Thaine would not have dared to take her in his arms, as he had taken
Jo Bennington.

"Little neighbor, we've been playmates nearly all our lives. Can't I help
you in some way?" he asked gently.

"Yes, you can," Leigh replied in a low voice. "There are some things I
must do for Uncle Jim and when you are doing _for_ people you can't tell
them nor depend on their advice. When Pryor is gone, may I ask you
sometimes what to do? I won't bother you often."

Asher Aydelot had declared that Alice Leigh was the prettiest girl in Ohio
in her day.

The pink-tinted creamy lilies looking up from the still surface of the
lakelet were not so fair as the pink-tinted face of Alice Leigh's
daughter, framed in the soft brown shadows of her hair with a hint of gold
in the ripples at the white temples. And behind the face, looking out
through long-lashed violet eyes, was loving sacrifice and utter
self-forgetfulness.

Thaine was nineteen and wise to give advice. A sudden thrill caught his
pulse, mid-beat.

"Is that all? Can't I _do_ something?" he asked eagerly.

"That's a great deal. And nobody can _do_ for anybody. We have to _do_ for
ourselves."

"You are not doing anything for Uncle Jim, then, I am to understand,"
Thaine said.

But Leigh ignored his thrust, saying:

"When Pryor leaves, he doesn't want to say good-by to anybody, not even to
Uncle Jim. He says China is only a little way off, just behind the purple
notches over there. I'm going to take him to the train tomorrow and then
I'm going on to Wykerton on business. After that, I may need lots of
advice."

"Wykerton's a joint-ridden place, but John Jacobs has put a good class of
farmers around it. He's such an old saloon hater, Hans Wyker'd like to
kill him. But say, why not tell me now what you are about, so I can be
looking up references and former judicial decisions handed down in similar
cases?" Thaine asked lightly.

"Because it's too long a story, and I must get Pryor to the eight o'clock
limited," Leigh said.

The crowing of chickens in a far away farmyard came faintly at that
moment, and Thaine with a strange new sense of the importance of living,
sent the black horses cantering down the trai