a lady out here?"

"You've degenerated since you left England."

"Now look here, my dear, I'll just tell you what Gertie did for me. She
was a waitress in Winnipeg at the Minnedosa Hotel, and she was making
money. She knew what the life was on a farm--much harder than anything
she'd been used to in the city--but she accepted all the hardship of it
and the monotony of it, because--because she loved me."

"She thought it a good match. You were a gentleman."

"Fiddledidee! She had the chance of much better men than me. And
when----"

"Such men as Frank Taylor, no doubt."

"And when I lost my harvest two years running, do you know what she did?
She went back to the hotel in Winnipeg for the winter, so as to carry
things on till the next harvest. And at the end of the winter, she gave
me every cent she'd earned to pay the interest of my mortgage and the
installments on the machinery."

Nora had been more moved by this recital than she would have cared to
confess. She turned away her head to hide that her eyes had filled with
tears. After all, a woman who could show such devotion as that, and to
her brother---- Yes, she would try again.

"Very well: I'll apologize. But leave me alone with her. I--I don't
think I could do it even before you, Eddie."

"Fine! That's a good girl. I'll go and tell her."

Nora felt repaid in advance for any sacrifice to her pride as he beamed
on her, all the look of worriment gone. She was once more busy at her
ironing-board, bending low over her work to hide her confusion, when he
returned with Gertie. A glance at her sister-in-law told her that there
was to be no unbending in that quarter until she had made proper
atonement. There was little conciliatory about that sullen face.

However, she made an effort to speak lightly until, once Eddie had taken
his departure, she could make her apology.

"I've been getting on famously with the ironing."

"Have you?"

"This is one of the few things I _can_ do all right."

"Any child can iron."

"Well, I'll be going down to the shed," said her brother uneasily.

"What for?" said Gertie quickly.

"I want to see about mending that door. It hasn't been closing right."

"I thought Nora had something to say to me."

"So she has: that's what I'm going to leaves you alone for."

"I like that. She insults me before everybody and then, when she's going
to apologize, it's got to be private. No, thank you."

"What do you mean, Gertie?" asked