ned on the
wide, old-fashioned hearth.

Sara was engrossed in a book, her head bent low above its pages,
unconscious of the keen blue eyes that had been regarding her
reflectively for some minutes.

With the passage of the last two months, Patrick's face seemed to
have grown more waxen, worn a little finer, and now, as he sat quietly
watching the slender figure on the opposite side of the hearth, it wore
a curious, inscrutable expression, as though he were mentally balancing
the pros and cons of some knotty point.

At last he apparently came to a decision, for he laid aside the
newspaper he had been reading a few moments before, muttering half
audibly:

"Must take your fences as you come to 'em."

Sara looked up abstractedly.

"Did you say anything?" she asked doubtfully.

Patrick gave his shoulders a grim shake.

"I'm going to," he replied. "It's something that must be said, and,
as I've never been in favour of postponing a thing just because its
disagreeable, we may as well get it over."

He had focused Sara's attention unmistakably now.

"What is it?" she asked quickly. "You haven't had bad news?"

An odd smile crossed his face.

"On the contrary." He hesitated a moment, then continued: "I had a
longish talk with Dr. McPherson yesterday, and the upshot of it is that
I may be required to hand in my checks any day now. I wanted you to
know," he added simply.

It was characteristic of the understanding between these two that
Patrick made no effort to "break the news," or soften it in any way. He
had always been prepared to face facts himself, and he had trained Sara
in the same stern creed.

So that now, when he quietly stated in plain language the thing which
she had been inwardly dreading for some weeks--for, though silent on
the matter, she had not failed to observe his appearance of increasing
frailty--she took it like a thorough-bred. Her eyes dilated a little,
but her voice was quite steady as she said:

"You mean----"

"I mean that before very long I shall put off this vile body." He
glanced down whimsically at his useless legs, cloaked beneath the
inevitable rug. "After all," he continued, "life--and death--are both
fearfully interesting if one only goes to meet them instead of running
away from them. Then they become bogies."

"And what shall I do . . . without you?" she said very low.

"Aye." He nodded. "It's worse for those who are left behind. I've been
one of them, and I know. I rem