"Your loving father, "DUNCAN LEE."

A vision rose before Margaret, as with tear-blurred eyes she folded her
father's letter and replaced it in its cover. She brushed the tears away
and looked at the date. Four days ago the letter had been posted. Her
home, an old homestead in a valley that nestled deep and sweet in the
heart of the grand mountain range, guarding it on every side, rose
before her. She saw her father, grizzled, stooping-shouldered,
care-worn, old-fashioned in dress, precise in manner, a gentleman of the
old school, a man who had never had much money, but who had sent his
five sons and his one daughter to college, giving them, what the Lees
prized most in life, a liberal education. She saw her mother, thin,
fair, tall, with the golden hair that would fade but would never turn
gray, the blue child-like eyes, the wistful mouth.

"Mother!" she gasped, "mother!"

The horror of the malady that had seized on the beautiful, dainty,
lovely woman, so like a princess in her bearing, so notable in her
housewifery, so neighborly, so maternal, swept over her in a hot tide,
retreated, leaving her shivering.

"I must go home," she said, "and at once!" With feet that seemed to her
weighted with lead she went straight to the room of the Dean, knowing
that in that gracious woman's spirit there would be instant
comprehension, and that she would receive wise advice.

"My dear!" said the Dean, "you have heard from Hilox, haven't you? We
are so proud of you; we want you to represent our college and our
culture there. It is a magnificent opportunity, Margaret."

The Dean was very short-sighted, and she did not catch at first the look
on Margaret's face.

"Yes," she answered, in a voice that sounded muffled and lifeless, "I
have heard from Hilox; I had almost forgotten, but I must answer the
letter. Dear Mrs. Wade, I have heard from home, too. My mother is very
ill, and she needs me. I must go at once--to-morrow morning. I cannot
wait for Commencement."

The Dean asked for further information. Then she urged that Margaret
should wait over the annual great occasion; so much was due the college,
she thought, and she pointed out the fact that Mr. Lee had not asked her
to leave until the exercises were over.

But Margaret had only one reply: "My mother needs me; I must go!"

A week later, at sunset, the old lumbering stage, rolling over the steep
hills and the smooth dales drew up at Margaret's home. Tired, bu