her lips, and fell sweetly
asleep.

CHAPTER XII

NEIL'S RETURN HOME

They that sin, are enemies to their own life.--Tobit, xii, 10.

But Thou sparest all, for they are Thine, O Lord, Thou Lover of
Souls.--Wisdom of Solomon, xi, 26.

Tomorrow is always another day, always a new day, and as long as we
live, always our day. It will bring us our little freight of good or
evil, and we must accept it, our salvation being that we have the
power of turning the evil into good, by the manner in which we accept
it. When Christine awoke in the morning, she awoke all at once. No
faculty of the Inner Woman dozed or lingered, every sense of the
physical woman was attent, even sight--which often delays after its
sister senses are conscious--promptly lifted its curtains, and
Christine knew in a moment that she was _all there_, every sense and
faculty alert, and ready for whatever the new day brought her.

She thought first of the trouble that Jessy was likely to make. "The
maist o' the women will side wi' Jessy," she thought, "not because
they like her, but because they dearly like a quarrel. I'll not
quarrel with them. I'll bide at hame, and if they come up here, I'll
bolt the doors on them. That's settled. I can neither keep back,
nor hurry forward Cluny, sae I'll just put him in God's care, and
leave him there. Neil has ta'en himsel' out o' my kindness and
knowledge, I can only ask God to gie his angel a charge concerning
him. The great queston is, how am I to get my bread and tea? There's
plenty o' potatoes in the house, and a pennyworth o' fish will make
me a meal. And I am getting a few eggs from the hens now, but
there's this and that unaccountable thing wanted every day; and I
hae just two-and-sixpence half-penny left. Weel! I'll show my
empty purse to the Lord o' heaven and earth, and I'm not doubting
but that He will gie me a' that is gude for me."

She put down her tea cup decisively to this declaration, and then
rose, tidied her house and herself, and sat down to her novel. With a
smile she opened her manuscript, and looked at what she had
accomplished. "You tiresome young woman," she said to her heroine.
"You'll hae to make up your mind vera soon, now, whether ye'll hae
Sandy Gilhaize, or Roy Brock. I'll advise you to tak' Sandy, but I
dinna think you'll do it, for you are a parfect daffodil o' vanity,
and you think Roy Brock is mair of a gentleman than Sandy. I dinna ken
what to do wi' you!----"