die on the same day as him, and she didn't
after--it was of a Saturday he died and this is a Sunday."

Louise and the Doctor looked up suddenly at each other. This was indeed
the 13th of September, the day on which Laurence Capel had last year
passed away.

They presently left the house of mourning, soon to become, by sad
incongruity, a house of feasting, Louise leaving a little money for "the
wake" in the old woman's hands. They walked towards home together, the
Doctor leading his horse.

"I hope there is nothing wrong, Miss Eden," he asked after a little,
noticing how abstracted and depressed she seemed.

"Yes," she answered; "I have had news that troubles me. My brother has
written to tell me that he is going to marry the lady at whose house he
has been staying in Yorkshire; and that, as she has a large property
there, he will give up his Irish appointment. They offer me a home, and
I am sure they would be very kind. But what troubles me is the thought
of leaving Cloon, where I have learned to help the people and to love
them. I can never settle into a dull, selfish, luxurious life again."
Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke.

The young man's heart beat fast. Might he--might he dare to lay himself
at her feet? He nervously played with the horse's mane and said
tremulously, "We can never do without you now, Miss Eden. We should all
be lost without you."

He paused and looked at her. She was gazing sadly at the distant blue
outline of the Clare hills, and the sun sinking behind them flashed upon
her tearful eyes. She was on the other side of the horse and a little in
advance, and he could not, had he dared, have touched her hand. The
words came out suddenly:

"We can never do without you here: I can never do without you. Will you
stay with me? I haven't much to offer you: two hundred pounds a-year is
all I am earning now, and I may soon get the hospital. I can't give you
what you are used to; but if I had the whole world and its riches, it's
to you I would bring them."

She had stopped now and listened to him, startled. Then she turned
again, looked at the tranquil hills and the far-stretching woods of
Inchguile, and the smoke curling from many a poor hearthstone. A vision
flashed across her mind of a life spent here in the country she had
learned to love, amongst the people she longed to succour, with for a
helper the strong, skilful man who had stood with her by so many beds of
sickness. Then she though