s delirium had come the understanding of
it. When, after the crisis, the doctor turned away from the bed, Jacques
looked steadily into Blanche's eyes, and she flushed, and wiped the wet
from his brow with her handkerchief. He took the handkerchief from her
fingers gently before Soldier Joe came over to the bed.

The doctor had insisted that Blanche should go to Weir's Tavern and get
the night's rest, needed so much, and Joe now pressed her to keep her
promise. Jacques added an urging word, and after a time she started. Joe
had forgotten to tell her that a new road had been made on the ice since
she had crossed, and that the old road was dangerous. Wandering with her
thoughts she did not notice the spruce bushes set up for signal,
until she had stepped on a thin piece of ice. It bent beneath her. She
slipped: there was a sudden sinking, a sharp cry, then another, piercing
and hopeless--and it was the one word--"Jacques!" Then the night was
silent as before. But someone had heard the cry. Freddy Tarlton was
crossing the ice also, and that desolating Jacques! had reached his
ears. When he found her he saw that she had been taken and the other
left. But that other, asleep in his bed at the sacred moment when she
parted, suddenly waked, and said to Soldier Joe: "Did you speak, Joe?
Did you call me?"

But Joe, who had been playing cards with himself, replied, "I haven't
said a word."

And Jacques then added: "Perhaps I dream--perhaps."

On the advice of the doctor and Freddy Tarlton, the bad news was kept
from Jacques. When she did not come the next day, Joe told him that she
couldn't; that he ought to remember she had had no rest for weeks, and
had earned a long rest. And Jacques said that was so.

Weir began preparations for the funeral, but Freddy Tarlton took them
out of his hands--Freddy Tarlton, who visited at the homes of Fort
Latrobe. But he had the strength of his convictions such as they were.
He began by riding thirty miles and back to ask the young clergyman at
Purple Hill to come and bury Blanche. She'd reformed and been baptised,
Freddy said with a sad sort of humour. And the clergyman, when he
knew all, said that he would come. Freddy was hardly prepared for what
occurred when he got back. Men were waiting for him, anxious to know if
the clergyman was coming. They had raised a subscription to cover the
cost of the funeral, and among them were men such as Harry Delong.

"You fellows had better not mix your