t to
collect lawful money, due the McLeod estate; and as far as I can see,
men who gamble for money are quite respectable if they get what they
gamble for. There was that old reprobate Lord Sinclair. He redeemed
the Sinclair estates by gambling and he married the beautiful daughter
of the noble Seaforths. Nobody blamed him. Pshaw! It is all a matter
of money--or it is my ill luck." And to such irritating reflections he
finally fell asleep.

CHAPTER IX

THE BREAD OF BITTERNESS

Sorrow develops the mind. It seems as if a soul was given us to suffer
with--

Dust to dust, but the pure spirit shall flow
Back to the burning fountain whence it came
A portion of the Eternal which must glow
Through time and change unalterably the same.

Our endless need is met by God's endless help.

At her room door Thora bid her mother good night. Rahal desired to
talk with her, but the girl shook her head and said wearily, "I want
to think, Mother. I have no heart to speak yet." And Rahal turned
sadly away. She knew that hour, that her child had come to a door for
which she had no key and she left her alone with the situation she had
to face. Nor did Thora just then realize that within the past hour her
girlhood had vanished, and that she had suddenly become a woman with a
woman's fate upon her and a woman's heart-rending problem to solve.

How it came she did not enquire, yet she did recognise some change in
herself. Hitherto, all her troubles had been borne by her father or
mother. This trouble was her very own. No one could carry it for her
but without any hesitation she accepted it. "I must find out the very
root of this matter," she said to herself, "and I will not go to bed
until I do. Nor is it half-asleep I will be over the question. I will
sit up and be wide awake."

So she put more peat and coal on her fire and lit a fresh candle;
removed her day clothing and wrapped herself in a large down cloak.
And the night was not cold for there was a southerly wind, and the
gulf stream embraces the Orkneys, giving them an abnormally warm
climate for their far-north latitude. And she had a passing wonder at
herself for these precautions. A year ago, a week ago, she would have
thrown herself upon her bed in passionate weeping or clung to her
mother and talked her sorrow away in her loving sympathy and advice.

But at this supreme hour of her life, she wanted to be alone. She
did not wish to talk about Ian with any