ked up and saw him staring down at her with a smile on his lips.
Inside his coat was her precious little dog, trembling with fear. The
terrier barked loudly when he saw his mistress. Peg sprang up, clutched
"Michael" away from the stranger, just as another blinding flash played
around the room followed by a deafening report.

Peg ran across to the door shouting: "Shut it out! Shut it out!" She
stood there trembling, covering her eyes with one hand, with the other
she held on to the overjoyed "MICHAEL," who was whining with glee at
seeing her again.

The amazed and amused young man closed the windows and the curtains.
Then he moved down toward Peg.

"Don't come near the dog, sir. Don't come near it!" She opened a door
and found it led into a little reception room. She fastened "MICHAEL"
with a piece of string to a chair in the room and came back to look
again at the stranger, who had evidently rescued her dog from the
storm. He was a tall, bronzed, athletic-looking, broad shouldered young
man of about twenty-six, with a pleasant, genial, magnetic manner and a
playful humour lurking in his eyes.

As Peg looked him all over she found that he was smiling down at her.

"Does the dog belong to you?" he queried.

"What were you doin' with him?" she asked in reply.

"I found him barking at a very high-spirited mare."

"MARE?" cried Peg. "WHERE?"

"Tied to the stable-door."

"The stable-door? Is that where they put 'MICHAEL'?" Once again the
lightning flashed vividly and the thunder echoed dully through the room.

Peg shivered.

The stranger reassured her.

"Don't be frightened. It's only a summer storm."

"Summer or winter, they shrivel me up," gasped Peg.

The young man walked to the windows and drew back the curtains. "Come
and look at it," he said encouragingly. "They're beautiful in this part
of the country. Come and watch it."

"I'll not watch it!" cried Peg. "Shut it out!"

Once more the young man closed the curtains.

Peg looked at him and said in an awe-struck voice:

"They say if ye look at the sky when the lightnin' comes ye can see the
Kingdom of Heaven. An' the sight of it blinds some and kills
others--accordin' to the state of grace ye're in."

"You're a Catholic?" said the stranger.

"What else would I be?" asked Peg in surprise.

Again the lightning lit the room and, after some seconds, came the deep
rolling of the now distant thunder.

Peg closed her eyes again and shivered.

"Does