fully agreed. "Of course, a mere baby! That's why I
can be friends with him. He's so utterly friendless. He needs a kind
word from somebody."

"But don't you rather go out of your way to give it to him?" asked
Mrs. Beattie very softly.

"Sister! How can you say such a thing?" said Miss Mackall in shocked
tones. "A mere child like that--one would think---- Oh, how can you?"

Mrs. Beattie let the matter drop with a little sigh. She had not been
home in fifteen years, and she found her elder sister much changed and
difficult to understand. Somehow their positions had been reversed.

Later, at the table, Miss Mackall suggested with an off-hand air that
the friendless young teamster might be asked to supper. Gilbert
Beattie looked up quickly.

"This is the company house," he said in his grim way, "and we are, so
to speak, public people. We must not give any occasion for silly
gossip."

"Gossip?" echoed Miss Mackall, raising her eyebrows. "I don't
understand you."

"Pardon me," said Beattie. "I think you do. Remember," he added with a
grim twinkle, "the trader's sister must be like Caesar's wife, above
suspicion."

Miss Mackall tossed her head and finished her meal in silence. Persons
of a romantic temperament really enjoy a little tyranny. It made her
seem young and interesting to herself.

That afternoon she walked up the road a way and met Sam safely out of
view of the house. Sam greeted her with a beaming smile.

It seemed to him that this was his one friend--the only soul he had to
talk to. He was little disposed to find flaws in her. As for her age,
he had never thought about it. Pressed for an answer, he would
probably have said: "Oh, about thirty!"

"Hello!" he cried. "Climb in and drive back with me."

"I can't," she replied with a mysterious air.

"Why not?"

"I mustn't be seen with you so much."

"Why?"

"It seems people are beginning to talk about us. Isn't it too silly?"

Sam laughed harshly. "I'm used to it," he said. "Of course, it's a
different thing for you."

"I don't care for myself," she returned. "But my brother-in-law----"

"He's been warning you against me, eh?" asked Sam bitterly.
"Naturally, you have to attend to what he says. It's all right." He
made as if to drive on.

Miss Mackall seemed to be about to throw herself in front of the
horses.

"How can you?" she cried reproachfully. "You know I don't care what
anybody says. But while I'm living in his house I have to----"