her little head with a haughty gesture. "I could
forgive a great deal to a man who really loved me, but nothing to an
adventurer who cares only for his own gains; I am sorry the dear old
Court will fall into such hands, for he cannot make a good master, and,
as far as we are concerned, it will cease to exist. That dream has come
to an end, Dr Maclure!"

"Well, one must hope it will be replaced by something more lasting.
Don't trouble too much about Mr Connor's difficulties. I feel quite
convinced that some arrangement can be made to tide him over the present
crisis. You may not live at the Court, but it is equally certain that
you are not going to the workhouse."

He held out his hand, and Ruth said good-bye with a little tremor of
relief and thankfulness in her voice. Dr Maclure was a man of few
words, but what he said he meant, and his quiet, assured manner made him
seem a veritable rock of refuge in the midst of the storm.

Ruth felt happier and more hopeful than she had done for many a long
day, despite the uneasiness caused by the doctor's appearance. His skin
was bronzed by his tour abroad, otherwise he must have looked shockingly
ill, for he was thin and worn to a marked extent. Remembering the date
of his illness, it was impossible not to connect it with her own
refusal, and Ruth's heart softened at the thought. "He has suffered for
me, as I have suffered for Victor! He is a real man; true and strong
and honest. Everywhere people run after him and admire him, but he
cares only for me. How much he cares! His poor, thin face! All this
time while I have been forgetting, he has been thinking of me, and
grieving himself ill."

Sad though the reflection might be, there was comfort mingled with it.
The sore, slighted feeling of the last few weeks could not survive while
a man of Donald Maclure's calibre placed her first among women.

That very evening, after his second visit to the invalid, the doctor was
closeted with Mr Connor for an hour, and after his departure the latter
joined his step-daughters in the dining-room, where Mollie was eating
her deferred dinner in preparation for the night's watch, and the first
glance at his face proved that a light had arisen in the darkness.

"The worst is over!" he said tremblingly. "Maclure has come to the
rescue. He is a good fellow--a noble fellow! God will reward him; I am
to draw upon him for necessary expenses for the next few months; and I
have no d