intervening quarry hollow like a
bundle of brown tow driven before a hurricane.

Mrs. Googe laughed. "No need to ask 'who' when you see Rag go mad like
that! It's Aileen; Rag has been devoted to her ever since you've been
gone. I wonder why she isn't at church?"

The girl disappeared in the house. Again and again Champney whistled for
his dog but Rag failed to put in an appearance.

"He'll need to be re-trained. It isn't well, even for a dog, to be under
such petticoat government as that; it spoils him. Only I'm afraid I
sha'n't be at home long enough to make him hear to reason."

"Aileen has him in good training. She knows the dog adores her and makes
the most of it. Oh, I forgot to tell you I sent word to Father Honore
this morning to come over to tea to-night. I knew you would like to see
him, and he has been anticipating your return."

"Has he? What for I wonder. By the way, where did he take his meals
after he left you?"

"Over in the boarding-house with the men. He stayed with me only three
months, until his house was built. He has an old French Canadian for
housekeeper now."

"He's greatly beloved, I hear."

"The Gore wouldn't be The Gore without him," Mrs. Googe spoke earnestly.
"The Colonel"--she laughed as she always did when about to quote her
rhetorical neighbor--"speaks of him to everyone as 'the heart of the
quarry that responds to the throb of the universal human,' and so far as
I know no one has ever taken exception to it, for it's true."

"I remember--he was an all round fine man. I shall be glad to see him
again. He must find some pretty tough customers up here to deal with,
and the Colonel's office is no longer the soft snap it was for fifteen
years, I'll bet."

"No, that's true; but, on the whole, there is less trouble than you
would expect among so many nationalities. Isn't it queer?--Father Honore
says that most of the serious trouble comes from disputes between the
Hungarians and Poles about religious questions. They are apt to settle
it with fists or something worse. But he and the Colonel have managed
well between them; they have settled matters with very few arrests."

"I can't imagine the Colonel in that role." Champney laughed. "What does
he do with all his rhetorical trumpery at such times? I've never seen
him under fire--in fact, he never had been when I left."

"I know he doesn't like it. He told me he shouldn't fill the office
after another year. You know he was obliged to d