d that pass on, leaving him behind.

There was another long silence, which he broke. "You will always do
the kind thing," he whispered. "You could not do anything else."

They had come to the big gate between the sentinel poplars, and
Christina stopped. Mary and young MacGillivray were leaning on the
little garden gate that led in from the lane, and Bruce and Ellen, who
had long passed the hanging-over-the-gate stage of courtship, had gone
indoors for something to eat.

"Oh, I'm afraid you're all wrong," she declared; "I--I don't want to a
bit, but, you think I ought to let Sandy go, don't you?"

Gavin looked down at her in the dim starlight for a moment before he
found courage to reply. "You know so much better than I do," he said
at last. "And I am not the one to advise you, because,--because,----"

"Because what?" she asked wonderingly.

"Because I can't bear to think of you going away," burst out Gavin with
desperate boldness.

Christina felt her cheeks grow hot under the sheltering darkness. She
was speechless in her turn, and then afraid of what might follow this
sudden outburst, she said confusedly, "I must go in now and think about
it," and with a hurried good-night, she was gone.

She ran noiselessly up the lane, avoiding the lovers at the garden
gate, and entered the back gate that opened from the barn-yard. She
found Bruce and Ellen with John and her mother in the kitchen eating
scones and drinking buttermilk. No one remarked her entrance except
that her mother, looking over her shoulder asked, "Where's your
brother, Christine?"

"He's gone off with some one else's sister," answered Christina trying
to speak carelessly.

"Sometimes sisters go off with some one else's brother," remarked John,
his eyes twinkling. "No, I don't believe he is a brother to any one,
is he?" Christina gave him an imploring look, that begged him to keep
her secret, and he generously changed the subject. They were all full
of Bruce's new prospects, and Christina slipped away unnoticed to bed.

But for the first time in her healthy young life worry drove sleep far
from her. She heard Sandy come in, heard Jimmie enter the next room
and his boots drop heavily on the floor, and when Ellen and Mary came
up she pretended to be asleep. She occupied a small room opening off
the one shared by her sisters, and could hear their whispers and hushed
laughter. Ellen was so proud of Bruce and all he was going to be, and
Mar