hat contact with
the public schools of a large city had taught her to expect.

A log snapped--she looked at the clock. It was exactly nine! Going to
the window, she pulled back the curtain; the old moon, that has a
fashion of working northward at this time, was rising from a location
wholly new to her.

She looked at Amos; he was very still, evidently asleep, yet
unnaturally so, for the regular breathing of unconsciousness was not
there and the firelight shadows made him look pinched and strange.
Suddenly she felt alone and panic stricken; she forgot the tests so well
known to her of pulse taking, and all the countryside tales of strokes
and seizures came back to her. She did not hesitate a moment; a man was
in the same house and she felt entirely outside of the strength of her
own will.

Going to the separating door, she found it locked, on which side she
could not be sure; but seeing a long key hanging by the clock she tried
it, on general principles. It turned hard, and the lock finally yielded
with a percussive snap. Stepping into the hall, she saw a light in the
front of the house, toward which she hurried. _The Man_ was seated by a
table that was strewn with books, papers, and draughting instruments; he
was not working, but in his turn gazing at the flames from a smouldering
hearth fire, though his coat was off and the window open, for it was not
cold but merely chilly.

Hearing her step, he started, turned, and, as he saw her upon the
threshold, made a grab for his coat and swung it into place. It is
strange, this instinct in civilized man of not appearing coatless
before a woman he respects.

"Amos Opie is very ill, I'm afraid," she said gravely, without the least
self-consciousness or thought of intrusion.

"Shall I go for the doctor?" said _The Man_, reaching for his hat and at
the same time opening the long cupboard by the chimney, from which he
took a leather-covered flask.

"No, not yet; please come and look at him. Yes, I want you very much!"
This in answer to a questioning look in his eyes.

Standing together by the bed, they saw the old man's eyelids quiver and
then open narrowly. _The Man_ poured whiskey from his flask into a
glass, added water, and held it to Amos's lips, where it was quickly and
completely absorbed!

Next he put a finger on Amos's pulse and after a minute closed his watch
with a snap, but without comment.

"You feel better now, Opie?" he questioned presently in a tone tha