ing you a chair.
This is my last night here," he said, when she had taken the chair he
brought. "Do not let us talk about that wretched side of life. I want,
before I go, to thank you for all the goodness and kindness you have
shown to me. You have been----"

She made an exclamation of impatience.

"You have nothing to thank me for, Mr. Durham. Surely there is nothing
deserving of thanks in doing what one could to relieve unmerited
suffering. I only had--compassion."

"It was more than compassion. It was the----"

"Now, please. You will only annoy me if you say any more about it. If
you had had a skilful nurse, you would have been cured long ago; it was
my foolish blundering which delayed you so long."

"Your blundering? If everybody would only blunder as you have, Mrs.
Burke, then there would----"

"You must not say that, Mr. Durham," she interrupted.

"But indeed I must," he answered softly. "You have not only brought me
back to health, but you have given me new life--something I never had
before--not until I met you. I want to tell you. I want----"

"No, no," she exclaimed, as she rose to her feet. "You must not talk
like that. You must not, really. I will not listen to you, I must not."

He lay back in his chair and she resumed her seat in silence.

"What news had Brennan?" she asked presently. "You see, I have not been
in the town since you came here," she went on. "One likes to know what
is going, especially when one is isolated. Has the new manager arrived
at the bank yet?"

"I think not, but I did not ask. Brennan would probably have mentioned
it though, if it were so."

"I must come in and see about engaging someone to get the place ready
for stock," she said. "The old man is not a scrap of use. In fact, I
wish he were back in Ireland. He has the usual Irish failing, Mr.
Durham. You know what that is. I'm always afraid that he will break out
if ever he gets into the town by himself."

"Drink?" Durham asked.

"Oh, something terrible. I don't think he has had any since you have
been up here, but one never knows. Any time I may find him helpless. It
makes me uneasy until I have someone else about the place. Sure you can
never say what a man like that will do. He might set the whole place on
fire over my head, and I should never know it till I was burned to death
perhaps."

"May I make inquiries for you to-morrow, when I get into town? Mr. Gale
may know----"

"Mr. Gale? Oh, he's a likely man to