d at last. "The older Shirleys are dead. Tank's life hastened the
end for them, the Cloverdale gossips say. And as I have owned the Shirley
House for several years, I came to know them well, and I do not think the
gossips were far out of the way."

"What of Tank's life?" Doctor Carey asked. "I have some personal reasons
for asking."

Miss Jane looked up quickly. She was a pretty woman, and a keenly
intelligent one as well. To Horace Carey, she seemed most charming at that
moment.

"Let me tell you of Alice first," she said. "You know, of course, that she
loved Jim. They were just suited to each other. But her mother and Tank's
mother planned otherwise. Alice was submissive. Tank was greedy. He wanted
the old Leigh farm. And envious, for he seemed to hate Jim always. It grew
to be the passion of his life to want to take whatever Jim had. His mother
hated Jim before he was born. It was his pre-natal heritage, combined with
a selfish nature. There was misrepresentation and deception enough to make
a plot for a novel; a misunderstanding and brief estrangement, separating
Jim and Alice forever--all managed by Tank and his mother, for the farm
first, and the downfall of Jim second. They took no account of Alice, who
must be the greatest loser. And after they were married, both
mothers-in-law were disappointed, for the Leigh farm was heavily
incumbered and sold by the sheriff the same fall, and the Shirley House
fell into Uncle Francis Aydelot's hands in about the same way. Love of
property can be the root of much misery." Miss Jane paused, for the story
brought bitterness to her kindly soul.

"It is ended now," Horace Carey said gently. "It is well that it is, I am
sure."

"Yes, Alice rests now beside her two little ones who went before her. She
had no sorrow in going, except for Leigh. And"--

"And you lifted that, I know." Doctor Carey finished the sentence.

"I tried to," Miss Jane said, struggling between timidity and
truthfulness. "I made her last hours peaceful, for she knew Leigh would be
cared for and safe. I saw to that. Tank Shirley is bound to a surrender of
all legal claim to her. It was left to Jim to take her, if he chose. If
not, she belongs to me. She is a strange child, wise beyond her years,
with a sort of power already for not telling all she knows. You can rely
on her in almost anything. She will make a strong woman some day."

Doctor Carey read the loving sacrifice back of the words, and his heart