eft is Allan. Thank God, the boy, at
least, is sound. Well, you shall have your cheque, and I'll make it a
big one that it may carry you the farther."

Even in the teeth of his bitterness the mention of Allan's name
strained the mother's heart beyond her power of resistance, and she
turned with outstretched arms towards her husband. For a moment he
wavered, the flame of love, still smouldering in his breast, leaping
up before the breath of her response. But it was for a moment only.
Weakness would have meant surrender, and surrender was the one thing
of which Harris was incapable. He had laid out his course with a
clear conscience; he was sincerely working for the greatest good to
his family, and if his wife was determined to stand in her own light
it was his duty to pursue the course in defiance of her. So he
checked the impulse to take her in his arms and walked stolidly to
his desk in the parlour.

He returned shortly and placed a cheque in her hands. She looked at
it through misty eyes, and read that it was for two hundred dollars.
It represented a two-hundredth part of their joint earnings, and yet
he thought he was dealing liberally with her; he half expected, in
fact, that his magnanimity would break her down where his firmness
had failed. But she only whispered a faint "Thank you," and slowly
folded the paper in her fingers. He waited for a minute, suspecting
that she was overcome, but as she said nothing more he at length
turned and left the house, saying gruffly as he went out, "When
that's done I'll send you more if you write for it."

It was now ten at night, and almost dark, but Harris's footsteps
instinctively turned down the road toward Riles'. Riles' reputation
in the community was that of a hardworking, money-grubbing farmer,
with a big bony body, and a little shrivelled soul, if indeed the
latter had not entirely dried up into ashes. A few years ago Harris
had held his neighbour in rather low regard, but of late he had been
more and more impressed with Riles' ability to make his farm pay,
which was as great as or greater than his own, and what he had once
thought to be hardness and lack of humanity he now recognized as
simply the capacity to take a common-sense, business view of
conditions.

At the gate he met Allan, returning from spending a social hour with
the grant boys.

"Where going, Dad?" the younger man demanded.

"Oh, I thought I'd take a walk over t' Riles'. There's a lot o'
things t