estic emergency. The servants and the
children welcomed her like sunshine, and she made the evenings all
too short by music and reading aloud. She blossomed out in her summer
costumes like a flower, so becoming to her style had been her choice
of fabrics and the taste with which they had been fashioned. June was
passing. In a day or two more Graydon would arrive, and the fruition
or failure of her patient endeavor begin.

CHAPTER VIII

RIVAL GIRLS

Instead of Graydon there came a letter saying that he would be
detained abroad another week. The heat was oppressive, and the family
physician said that little Jack should be taken to the country at
once. Therefore they packed in haste, and started for a hotel in the
Catskills at which rooms had been engaged. Graydon was to join them
there as soon after his return as possible.

Madge looked wistfully at the mountains, as with shadowy grandeur
they loomed in the distance. There is ever a solemnity about mountain
scenery, and she felt it as she passed under the lofty brows of wooded
heights. To her spirit it was grateful and appropriate, for, while she
would lead among them apparently the existence of a young girl bent
only on enjoyment, she believed she would leave them, either a happy
woman, or else facing the tragedy of a thwarted life. Their deepest
shadows might, even when her laugh was gayest, typify the despondency
she would hide from all.

It was Saturday, and Mr. Muir accompanied his family. He and his wife
looked worn and weary, for at this time circumstances were bringing
an excess of care to both. Mrs. Muir was a devoted mother, and little
Jack had taxed her patience and strength to the utmost. A defensive
warfare is ever the severest test of manhood, and Mr. Muir had found
the past week a trying one. He had been lured into an enterprise that
at the time had seemed certain of success, even to his conservative
mind, but unforeseen elements had entered into the problem, and it now
required all his nerve, all his resources, to meet the strain. Neither
Madge nor his wife knew anything of this. Indeed, it was not his habit
to speak of his affairs to any one, unless the exigencies of the case
required explanation. In this emergency he was obliged to maintain
among his associates an air of absolute confidence. Now that he was
out of the arena he gave evidence of the strain.

Madge saw this, and resolved that her large reserve of vitality should
be drawn upo