her own room, Nora found it hard to keep back her angry tears.
Only the thought that her reddened eyes would betray her to Gertie at
dinner kept her from having a good cry.

CHAPTER VII

That one morning was a fair sample of all the other days. Each suspected
the other, neither would make allowances or concessions. As a
consequence, day by day the breach widened. Even Eddie, who was more
unobserving than most men, felt vaguely uncomfortable in the surcharged
atmosphere. From the first Nora realized that it was an unequal contest;
Gertie was too strongly intrenched in her position. But it was not in
her nature to refrain from administering those little thrusts, which
women know so well how to deal one another, from any motive of policy.
The question of what she should do once her brother's house became
intolerable she never permitted herself to ask.

In the needle-pricking mode of warfare she was, of course, far more
expert than her rival. But if Gertie's hand was clumsy it was also
heavy. And always in the back of her mind was the consciousness that
she, so to speak, had at least one piece of heavy artillery which she
could bring up once the enemy's fire became unendurable.

During the day, the men being out of the house except at meal time,
there was to a certain degree, a cessation of hostilities. Nora
gradually acquired some knowledge of housework. She learned to cook
fairly well and always helped with the washing, rarely complaining of
her aching arms and back. The only indication she had that she was
making progress was that Gertie complained less. Praise, of course, was
not to be expected.

At dinner the men were usually too anxious to get back to work--always
with the exception of Hornby, who according to his own highly colored
account, had been assigned the herculean task of splitting all the wood
required by the Province of Manitoba for the ensuing winter--to linger
longer than the time required for smoking a hurried pipe, so that it was
only during the long evenings that hostilities were resumed. And then,
more or less under cover.

There was one person upon whom Nora could openly vent her nervous
irritation after a long day in Gertie's society, and that was Frank
Taylor. They quarreled constantly, to the great amusement of the others.
But with him, too, she felt hopelessly at a disadvantage. He was
maddeningly sure of himself, and while he sometimes gave back thrust for
thrust, he never lost hi