e said; "I ain't a man to jaw much, but I believe
_you_, and am obliged to you for this. If that young jacknapes from York
tries to come any of his city games down here, by the Lord Jehosaphat!
I'll lay him up with something worse than a broken arm!"

"Can you not avert the danger?" suggested Mr. Gilbert. "It may not be
too late. Send the fellow away."

"Wal, squire, you see that mightn't be doing the square thing by him. It
would look unpleasantly like turning him out. No, I can't send him away
until the doctor says he's fit to go, but, by ginger, I'll send her!"

"Will she go?"

Uncle Reuben chuckled.

"We won't ask her. I'll fix it off. We've some cousins thirty miles up
country, and they've invited her time and again, but, somehow, we've
never felt--Joe and me--as though we could spare her afore. It's
powerful lonesome, I tell ye, squire, when Norry ain't around. But
now--I'll take her to-morrow morning."

"The best thing you can do. And now, before it gets any later and
stormier, I will be off. Good-by, Mr. Kent, for the present."

"Good-by, and thanky, squire, thanky. You'll be along again soon, hey?"

"Well, perhaps so," replied the lawyer, coloring slightly. "Take care of
your niece, Kent, and good-by to you."

They parted at the gate. Reuben Kent watched the stalwart form of the
lawyer out of sight, then walked slowly and thoughtfully back to the
house and the sitting-room. Mr. Thorndyke, in a deep, melodious tenor,
was reading aloud "Lucille," and Miss Bourdon, with flushed cheeks and
glistening eyes of light, was listening.

The reading ceased at the farmer's entrance; the spell was broken, and
Norine looked up.

"Has Mr. Gilbert gone, Uncle Reuben?"

"Yes."

He said it with unusual gravity, regarding young Thorndyke. The girl saw
the change in his usually good humored, red-and-tan face, and went over
and threw an arm around his neck.

"What is it, uncle? Something gone wrong?"

"No--yes. Nothing that can't be set right, I hope. Where's your aunt?"

"In the kitchen baking cake. Shall I run and call her?"

"No, I'll go myself."

He left the room. Mr. Thorndyke watched him.

"It is as I thought," he said to himself. "My label is up, 'dangerous.'
What has Gilbert been saying? Has he given Uncle Reuben my whole
interesting biography? Has he told him I drink, I gamble, I make love to
pretty girls wherever I meet them? All right, my legal duffer; you have
set your forty-years-old heart on pr