ctically proposed to me half
an hour ago--didn't you?"

"Practically."

"Nora! You've been like cat and dog with Frank ever since you came. My
dear, you don't know what you're in for."

"If he's willing to risk it, I am."

"It ain't an easy life you're coming to. This farm is a palace compared
with my shack."

"I'm not wanted here and you say you want me. If you'll take me, I'll
come."

For what seemed an interminable moment, he had looked at her with more
gravity than she had ever seen in his face.

"I'll take you, all right. When will you be ready? Will an hour do for
you?"

"An hour! You're in a great hurry." She had had a funny sensation that
her knees were giving way. She had never fainted in her life. Was she
going to faint now before them all? Before Gertie? Never! Somehow she
must get out of the room and be alone a minute.

"Why, yes. Then we can catch the three-thirty into Winnipeg. You can go
to the Y. W. C. A. for the night and we'll be buckled up in the morning.
You meant it, didn't you? You weren't just saying it as a bluff?"

"I shall be ready in an hour."

She had pushed Eddie gently aside and, without a glance at anyone had
walked steadily from the room.

Once seated on the side of the bed in the room that had been hers, she
had been seized with a chill so violent that her teeth had chattered in
her head. To prevent anyone who might follow her from hearing them,--and
it was probable that her brother might come for a final remonstrance; it
was even conceivable that Gertie, herself, might be sorry for what she
had done; but no, it was she who had said she was shameless!--she got up
and locked her door and then threw herself full length on the little bed
and crammed the corner of the pillow into her mouth.

Perhaps she was going to die. She had never really been ill in her life
and the violence of the chill frightened her. In her present
overwrought state, the thought of death was not disquieting. But
supposing she was only going to be very ill, with some long and tedious
illness that would make her a care and a burden for weeks? She recalled
the unremitting care which she had had to give Miss Wickham, and
pictured Gertie's grudging ministrations at her sick-bed. Anything
rather than that! She must manage to get to Winnipeg. Once away from the
house, nothing mattered.

But after a few moments the violence of the chill, which was of course
purely nervous in its origin, subsided perceptibly