said: "You can say anything to her; it will not hurt
her." He turned away, and Keith seated himself beside her. Her face and
hands were swathed in bandages.

"I want to say good-by," she said feebly. "You don't mind now what I
said to you that time?" Keith, for answer, stroked the coverlid beside
her. "I want to go back home--to Gumbolt.--Tell the boys good-by
for me."

Keith said he would--as well as he could, for he had little voice left.

"I want to see _her_," she said presently.

"Whom?" asked Keith.

"The younger one. The one you looked at all the time. I want to thank
her for the doll. I ran away."

Lois was sent for, but when she reached the bedside Terpy was too far
gone to speak so that she could be understood. But she was conscious
enough to know that Lois was at her side and that it was her voice that
repeated the Lord's Prayer.

The newspapers the next day rang with her praises, and that night Keith
went South with her body to lay it on the hillside among her friends,
and all of old Gumbolt was there to meet her.

* * * * *

Wickersham, on finding his attempt at explanation to Mrs. Wentworth
received with coldness, turned his attentions in another direction. It
was necessary. His affairs had all gone wrong of late. He had seen his
great fortune disappear under his hands. Men who had not half his
ability were succeeding where he had failed. Men who once followed him
now held aloof, and refused to be drawn into his most tempting schemes.
His enemies were working against him. He would overthrow them yet.
Norman Wentworth and Gordon Keith especially he hated.

He began to try his fortune with Mrs. Lancaster again. Now, if ever,
appeared a good time. She was indifferent to every man--unless she cared
for Keith. He had sometimes thought she might; but he did not believe
it. Keith, of course, would like to marry her; but Wickersham did not
believe Keith stood any chance. Though she had refused Wickersham, she
had never shown any one else any special favor. He would try new tactics
and bear her off before she knew it. He began with a dash. He was quite
a different man from what he had been. He even was seen in church,
turning on Rimmon a sphinx-like face that a little disconcerted that
eloquent person.

Mrs. Lancaster received him with the serene and unruffled indifference
with which she received all her admirers, and there were many. She
treated him, however, with the