g very beautiful and breath-taking
came into David's thoughts at that moment.

He was roused from his beatific state by the approach of Barnabas, so
he was obliged to concentrate his attention on giving a resume of his
tour. Then the Judge telephoned for him to come to his office, and he
was unable to finish his business there until dusk. The night was
clear and frost touched. He left his horse in the lane and walked up
to the house. As he came on to the porch he looked in through the
window. The bright fire on the hearth, the soft glow of the shaded
lamp, and the fair-haired girl seated by a table, needlework in hand,
gave him a hunger for a hearth of his own.

Suddenly the scene shifted. Joe came in from the next room. Janey rose
to her feet, a look of love lighting her face as she went to the arms
outstretched to receive her.

CHAPTER VI

David went back to Lafferton. The little maid informed him that the
Judge and his wife were out for the evening; but there was always a
room in readiness for him, so he sat alone by the window, staring into
the lighted street, trying to comprehend that Janey was not for him.

It was late the next morning when he came downstairs.

"I am glad, David, you decided to stay here last night," said M'ri,
whose eyes were full of a yearning solicitude.

She sat down at the table with him while he drank his coffee.

"David."

She spoke in a desperate tone, that caused him to glance keenly at
her.

"If you have anything to tell," he said quietly, "it's a good plan to
tell it at once."

"Since you have been away Joe and Janey have been together
constantly. It seems to have been a case of mutual love. David, they
are engaged."

"So," he said gravely, "I am to lose my little sister. Joe is a man in
a thousand."

"But, David, I had set my heart on Janey's marrying you, from that
very first day when you went to school together and you carried her
books. Do you remember?"

"Yes," he replied whimsically, "but even then Joe met us and took her
away from me. But I must drive out and congratulate them."

M'ri gazed after him in perplexity as he left the house.

"I wonder," she mused, "if I ever quite understood David!"

Miss Rhody called to David as he was passing her house and bade him
come in.

"You've hed a hard trip," she said, with a keen glance into his tired,
boyish eyes.

"Very hard, Miss Rhody."

"You have heard about Janey--and Joe?"

"Aunt M'ri just told m