herly arms around me and to
realize that here was a love that would never fail me no matter what I
did or how foolish I was. Sara heard me out and then she said, without
a word of reproach or contempt, "It will all come out right yet, dear.
Write to Walter and tell him you are sorry."

"Sara, I never could! He doesn't love me any longer--he said he hoped
he'd never see me again."

"Didn't you say the same to him, child? He meant it as little as you
did. Don't let your foolish pride keep you miserable."

"If Walter won't come back to me without my asking him he'll never
come, Sara," I said stubbornly.

Sara didn't scold or coax any more. She patted my head and kissed me
and made me bathe my face and go to bed. Then she tucked me in just as
she used to do when I was a little girl.

"Now, don't cry, dear," she said, "it will come right yet."

Somehow, I began to hope it would when Sara thought so, and anyhow it
was such a comfort to have talked it all over with her. I slept better
than I had for a long time, and it was seven o'clock yesterday morning
when I woke to find that it was a dull grey day outside and that Sara
was standing by my bed with her hat and jacket on.

"I'm going down to Junction Falls on the 7:30 train to see Mr. Conway
about coming to fix the back kitchen floor," she said, "and I have
some other business that may keep me for some time, so don't be
anxious if I'm not back till late. Give the bread a good kneading in
an hour's time and be careful not to bake it too much."

That was a dismal day. It began to rain soon after Sara left and it
just poured. I never saw a soul all day except the milkman, and I was
really frantic by night. I never was so glad of anything as when I
heard Sara's step on the verandah. I flew to the front door to let her
in--and there was Walter all dripping wet--and his arms were about me
and I was crying on the shoulder of his mackintosh.

I only guessed then what I knew later on. Sara had heard from Mrs.
Shirley that Walter was going to Marlboro that day without coming back
to Atwater. Sara knew that he must change trains at Junction Falls and
she went there to meet him. She didn't know what train he would come
on so she went to meet the earliest and had to wait till the last,
hanging around the dirty little station at the Falls all day while it
poured rain, and she hadn't a thing to eat except some fancy biscuits
she had bought on the train. But Walter came at last on