e
Monthly before Wednesday at the earliest, and I won't let myself
really look for anything before Friday.

J. V.

Again there came a single line----

_Monday Night._

It's too heart-breaking to write about, M.D., even to you.

_Tuesday Morning._

I've had to stop hating the poor old Deacon altogether; this morning
he carried S.A.B.B. upstairs with his own hands and put him on the
bed beside the boy.

J. V.

_Tuesday Night._

It's very late, Michael Daragh, but there are things I must tell you
before I sleep.

I went for a walk this morning, and when I came back I saw Angelique
waving to me from the window. I _knew_, and I ran into the house
and upstairs. The Deacon was praying aloud, a terrible, cast-iron
prayer, and Angelique was sobbing and S.A.B.B. was whining and
shivering. I knelt down beside Dan'l and he opened his eyes. I could
just make out the whisper--"My ... letter?"

I jumped up and ran over to his father and took him by the elbow and
marched him into my room and shut the door and stood with my back
against it. My teeth were chattering so I could hardly speak. "He's
dying," I said. "_Now_ will you let me?"

He was shaking, too, but he quavered, "I wunt bear false witness! I
wunt take a lie on my soul!"

Then something boiled up and over in my heart, Michael Daragh. I
caught hold of him and shook him and I was so strong I scared myself.
"You pitiful, craven-hearted old coward," I said, "all you can think
of is your sour old self! If you loved him--if you knew the first
faint beginning of love--" I snatched up the letter I had addressed
to Dan'l and ran over to the dresser for my purse. "You stay in here
with the truth and keep your musty little soul safe! I'm going in
there and tell him a beautiful lie!"

But he fumbled some bills from his lean old wallet. "Wait! Here's
twenty dollars! I'm a-comin', too!"

We went in together, and he bent over the bed and held the bills
close to the boy's eyes. "Look a-here, Dan'l! Look a-here, boy!
Here's your money! Here's your _money_, Dan'l!" (Wasn't it pitiful,
Michael? Even then, he still thought the money meant most.)

Dan'l opened his eyes and I said, "You were right all along, Danny!
You were right to trust and believe in him! He _was_ grateful!"--and
I held the envelope wher