dmit that he must be a great
deal better than Don, for Don had lately scouted the idea of being a
minister. She felt herself highly privileged to be the friend of such
a man. And since he was engaged to be married, there could be no harm
in her being friendly with him.

Whatever mistakes John Egerton made, they were committed with the best
intentions. He determined, while enjoying Jessie's friendship, to
maintain a strictly impartial position among the young ladies of his
congregation. But somehow fate seemed against him. The very night
after Donald left there was a husking bee at Big Archie Red McDonald's
in the Oa, and as he sat down in the long, noisy row of boys and girls
and helped to fill the barn with laughter and dust, he found himself
next to Jessie. He had never seen her look prettier, and she had never
found him more entertaining. He threw himself into the work with all
his might, and was so gay and so witty, that the common verdict was
spoken by Big Archie Red's bigger and redder son, that "they didn't
know what fun was until the minister came." He could not resist the
pleasure of a walk down the great terraces in the moonlight in such
pleasant company as Jessie afforded. That walk was the beginning of
it; what was to be the end, all Glenoro was in a fever to know. There
was no doubt of one thing; the minister was "keeping company" with John
Hamilton's second girl whether his congregation liked it or not.

For a short season John Egerton experienced an uncomfortable sensation
that he was not acting just rightly. This was at Thanksgiving time,
when he paid his first visit to Toronto. As the train whirled him
northward again, through the sunlit spaces of brown earth and blue sky,
he told himself positively that he had gone too far with the little
village belle, and that he must hereafter walk more circumspectly. For
when he had found himself once more in the stately home of the woman he
loved, and Helen, tall and beautiful, had swept into the spacious
drawing-room to greet him, he realised, for the first time, what a
difference lay between the queenly young woman of society and the
simple little country girl who had been absorbing such a dangerously
large amount of his time and thoughts. Helen, so composed, so
elegantly poised, so thoroughly at home in the best social circles of
the city, would be a perfect companion for him, one in every way suited
to take her place at his side in the brilliant