en drowned. So now!"

It had all come out in a rush. She had fully intended to shield Fred.
But she could not see her preserver scoffed at by those Baldwin girls.
Immediately there was a chorus of enquiries and exclamations.
Afternoon Tea Willie was overcome with distress and apologised for not
being there. Old Angus McRae's son immediately became a hero.

The little plump girl with the big blue eyes sighed enviously. "Oh
dear! How lucky! I think it's a shame all the good things happen to
you, Leslie; and he's so handsome!"

"I'm going to ask him to join our tennis club," said Leslie, looking
round rather defiantly.

Leslie Graham, by virtue of the fact that her mother belonged to the
reigning house of Armstrong, and her father was the richest man in
Algonquin, was leader of the younger social set. But Miss Anna Baldwin
of the black eyes was her most powerful rival. They were constant
companions and very dear friends, and never agreed upon anything. So
immediately upon Miss Graham's daring announcement that this new and
very exclusive club should be entered by one not in their set, Miss
Baldwin cried, "Oh, how perfectly sweet and democratic! Our milkman
saved our house from burning down one morning last winter, don't you
remember, Lou? We must make Mamma ask him to her next tea!"

Thereupon the group broke up into two sections, one loudly proclaiming
its democratic principles, the other as vigorously upholding the
necessity for drawing rigid social lines. And they all swept into the
ice-cream palace, like a swarm of hot, angry bees, followed by
Afternoon Tea Willie in great distress, apologising now to one side,
now to the other.

Another call from his work came to Roderick the next afternoon when he
paid his first visit to Doctor Leslie. The old Manse did not look just
as hospitable as of old, there were no crowds on the veranda and in the
orchard any more. For the foster mother of the congregation had left
her children mourning, and gone to continue her good work in a brighter
and better world.

Viney was still in the kitchen, however, doing all in her power to make
the lonely minister comfortable. She had been away from the Manse for
some years in the interval, but was now returned with a half-grown
daughter to help her. Viney had left Mrs. Leslie to marry "Mahogany
Bill," a mulatto from the negro settlement out in Oro. But Bill had
been of no account, and after his not too sadly mourned demi