hink I have failed to appreciate your loveliness to
me this summer. All the time when I have appeared most ungrateful I
have cared most. I won't talk about it now, only as you are an artist
you understand better than I how one may see things in a wrong
perspective. My view is clearer now whatever happens."

Tory kneeled down:

"I wish I might be Ruth to your Naomi."

CHAPTER XXI

KARA'S DEPARTURE

Believing that it would do his patient no possible injury, Dr. McClain
agreed that Kara should see as many of her friends as she desired upon
the last few days before departing for New York City.

Every spare hour Kara and Tory were together. The last few days Miss
Victoria Fenton had asked Kara to stay with them at their home in the
village. Farewell could be more easily said from there than at the
Gray House on the edge of the town. There would be less difficulty in
finally getting away.

Dr. McClain was to accompany Kara to New York in order to see the New
York physicians. Mr. Jeremy Hammond had offered to motor them down, as
he owned a handsome car and Kara would be spared having to be lifted
in and out of the train.

Kara's farewell Scout meeting was by her own request a quiet one. No
one would be present save the Scout Captain and her own Patrol. There
was only one other person who would come for half an hour to say
good-by, Memory Frean.

Fortunately the Fenton house had a bedroom on the first floor, so that
Kara could be comfortable without the problem of the stairs.

One admirer Kara had acquired without realizing the fact. She was to
make the discovery on the afternoon that she and Miss Victoria Fenton
sat talking, waiting for Tory to announce that preparations were ready
for tea.

From the beginning of Tory's first acquaintance with Katharine Moore,
Miss Fenton had been quietly watching the other girl. She had liked
Kara's fashion of never referring to the difference between her own
life and that of her more fortunate friends. When it was natural to
mention the orphan asylum, where she made her home, always she spoke
of the place with affection, never criticism or resentment.

Knowing nothing of her parentage, Miss Victoria concluded for reasons
of her own that Kara had come of well-bred people. And she meant more
than ordinary breeding. She was under the impression that Kara
revealed rare tact and sweetness in a difficult situation. Now and
then she considered that her attitude bore a qualit