anger kindled in her eyes only to die as instantly out of them, as she
bit her lip. When she spoke it was in an even gentler voice. "You know
why I listened to him, Stuart. You know that I didn't listen ... before
his stroke. I didn't listen when I told him that if you went, I went,
too, did I?"

The man's face paled and with a spasmodic gesture he covered it with his
hands. "My God!" he exclaimed, "I don't think I've ever said such a
damnably mean and caddish thing before--and to you!"

But Conscience bent over and drew his hands away from his face. "It
wasn't you. It was just the strain. You could make allowances for me
when I called you out to calm me in the middle of the night. I can make
them, too. Neither of us is quite sane."

But having had that warning of Stuart's slipping control, Conscience
kept locked in her own bosom certain fresh trials which discussion would
have alleviated. She did not tell him how she spent sleepless nights
devising plans to meet the grim insistence upon his banishment which
she knew the morning would bring. But she felt that the comfort of a
complete unburdening of her feelings had been curtailed and with a
woman's genius for sacrifice she uncomplainingly assumed that added
strain.

One afternoon Eben Tollman came out of the house, as she was walking
alone under the bare trees of the driveway, and stopped, hat in hand, at
her side.

"Conscience," he began thoughtfully, "Mr. Williams has just told me of
his insistence that Mr. Farquaharson shall not only be denied the house,
but sent away altogether. You must be carrying a pretty heavy load for
young shoulders."

The girl stood regarding her father's counselor gravely. He had never
appealed to her as a person inviting confidence, and she had thought of
his mind as cut to the same austere pattern as the minister's own. Yet
now his face wore an expression of kindliness and sympathy to which his
manner gave corroboration. Possibly she had misjudged the man and lost
his underlying qualities in her careless view of externals. Tollman
seemed to expect no answer and went on slowly, "I tried to point out to
your father the unwisdom of an insistence which must stir a spirit like
yours to natural opposition. I suggested that under the circumstances it
was scarcely fair."

"What did he say?" She put the inquiry with a level glance as if
reserving her right to accept or reject his volunteered assistance.

"He could only see his own side