face settled to the stoniness that masked his
suffering. "Wouldn't it look very queer?" was all he said. "People might
not understand it."

"Oh, they haven't understood it as it is; but does that matter? I know
there's been talk in the village during the past few weeks, but surely
we're in a position to ignore it." In the hope of opening up the way for
Thor in what he had to make clear, she decided to go further. While
speaking she kept her eyes on Masterman. "You may not need him, but he
may need you. As a matter of fact, he has still something to explain to
you which I may as well tell you now. On that night--the night of the
ninth of July--Thor and Claude were here in the house together. There
was trouble between them."

Mrs. Masterman gasped; her husband breathed hard, saying, merely, "Go
on."

"I don't know what the quarrel was exactly, but--but--there were blows."

"Not the blow--?" Masterman began, with horror in his tone.

"Oh no, not that," Lois interposed, hastily, going on to explain briefly
the incidents of the struggle between the brothers, as far as she knew
them. "That part of it was all over," she continued, eagerly, before
either of the parents could comment on this new phase of the event.
"Claude wasn't much hurt. You can see that from the way he was able to
get up and come out into the air while Thor was running up to our house
for brandy. If there hadn't been some one lurking in the shrubbery--"

"He's been a terrible son to me," Masterman broke in, wrathfully. "When
it isn't in one way it's in another. What have I done to deserve--?"

"He _is_ terrible," Lois admitted, soothingly; "but, oh, Mr. Masterman,
he's terrible in such splendid ways! He hasn't found himself yet; but he
will if you'll give him time. Whatever he's done wrong he'll atone for
nobly. You'll see!"

The mother's intervention came to Lois as a new surprise. "Whatever he's
done wrong he's sorry for. We can be sure of that." She turned to her
husband. "Archie, Claude was my son; and I want to tell you now, before
we go any further, that no matter what happened between Thor and him, I
forgive it, if there's anything to forgive."

"I know Thor feels there was something to forgive," Lois confessed on
her husband's behalf, "whether there was or not."

"Then tell him to come to me," Ena commanded, in a tone such as Lois had
never heard from her.

"I'll tell him to go to you, if you'll ask him to stay here with you a
little lon