"

"Very well," replied the Superintendent. "Strong man. Where is he now?"

"He went to Europe. Well, the brothers were everything to each other
since little fellows together. Oh, it was beautiful! I never saw
anything like it anywhere. They had a misunderstanding, a terrible
misunderstanding. Dick was in the wrong." The Superintendent shot a keen
glance at her. "No," she said, answering his glance, the colour in her
face deepening into a vivid scarlet, "it was not about me, not at all. I
can't tell you about it, but that, and his trouble with the Presbytery,
and all the rest of it are just killing him. And I know if he got back
to his own work again and away from home it would save him, and his
mother, too, for she is breaking her heart. Couldn't you get him out
there?"

The Superintendent saw how hard a task it had been for her to tell the
story, and the sight of her eager face, the big blue eyes bright, and
the lips quivering with the intensity of her feeling, deeply touched
him.

"It might be possible," he said.

"Oh, I know the Presbytery difficulty," cried Margaret, with a desperate
note in her voice.

"That could be arranged, I have no doubt," said the Superintendent,
brushing aside that difficulty with a wave of the hand. "The question
is, would he be willing to go?"

"Oh, he would go, I am sure. If you saw him and if you told him those
stories about the need there is, I am sure he would go. Could you see
him? There is no use to write. I do wish you could. He is such a fine
boy and his mother is so set upon his being a minister." The blue eyes
were bright with tears she was too brave to let fall.

"My dear young lady," said the Superintendent, his deep voice growing
deeper under the intensity of his feelings, "I would do much for your
sake and for your mother's. I am to visit your home early next month.
I shall make it a point to see Mr. Boyle, and I promise you I shall get
him if it is possible."

The sudden lifting of the burden from her heart deprived the girl of
speech, but she shyly put out her hand and touched the long, sinewy
fingers that lay within reach of hers in a timid caress. Instantly the
fingers closed upon her hand in a grasp so strong that it seemed to
drive the conviction into her heart that somehow this strong man would
find a way by which Dick could be saved.

How, or by what arguments, the Superintendent overcame Dick's
objections, Margaret never learned. But the full bitter t