se, in fine,
that he had believed in Marjorie's desire and intention to do right,
even if she had been a coward for a few minutes to begin with?

Then--why, then--

By this time, perhaps, he could have won her back. If he had not laid
down the law to her--if he had not put her to the test. What business
had a man in love to make terms, anyhow? It was for him to accept what
terms Marjorie had chosen to make for him.

He flung himself down on his knees by the window-seat, heedless of any
one who might come or go.

"Oh, God," prayed Francis passionately, as he did everything. "Give me
another chance! Let her get well, and give me one little chance then
to have her forgive me! I don't care what else happens if that only
does!"

He did not know how long he knelt there, praying with such intensity
that he sprang aside when some one touched him on the shoulder.

"She's goin' to be all right in the long run," said Mrs. O'Mara. "I
gev' her a wee drink o' water, an' she kem to herself fur a minute.
An' I says, 'Me dear, where did ye git yer fever?' An' she says, 'The
swamp, I think. Don't I have to travel to-day? I'm in bed.' An' I
says, 'Not to-day nor anny day till ye want, me child,' and she turns
over an' snuggles down like a lamb. An' I've sponged her off with cool
water, an' she feels better, though she's off agin, an' I'm afraid the
fever'll be runnin' up on us before the doctor can git here."

"You mean she isn't sensible now?" demanded Francis, whose eyes had
lighted up with hope when she began to speak.

"Well, not so's ye could talk to her. An' ye might excite her. Them
they loves does often."

"Then I wouldn't," said Francis recklessly. "Oh, Mother O'Mara, I've
been such a brute----"

"Hush, hush now, don't ye be tellin' me. Sure we're all brutes wanst
in awhile. Ye feel that way because the child's sick. Now go out and
watch fer the doctor, or do annything else that'll amuse ye."

He obeyed her as if he were a little boy. He was so miserable that he
would have done what any one told him just then--if Logan, even, with
his cane and his superciliousness, had given him a direction he would
probably have obeyed it blindly.

Mrs. O'Mara went back to the sick-room. How much she knew of the
situation she never told. But Peggy was not a secretive person, and
Peggy had arrived at a point with Logan where he told her a good deal,
if she coaxed. They never got it out of the old lady, at any