seful.

She knew exactly the sort of letter he would write, desiring their
return; and Avery, for all her quiet strength, would have to submit. Oh,
it was cruel--cruel!

The tears were coursing down her cheeks when the door opened unexpectedly
and Olive entered. She paused at sight of her mother, looking at her with
just the Vicar's air of chill enquiry.

"Is anything the matter?" she asked.

Mrs. Lorimer turned hastily to the window and began to dry her eyes.

Olive went to a bookshelf and stood before it. After a moment she took
out a book and deliberately turned we leaves. Her attitude was plainly
repressive.

Finally she returned the book to the shelf and turned. "Why are you
crying, Mother?"

Mrs. Lorimer leaned her head against the window-frame with a heavy sigh.
"I am very miserable, Olive," she said, a catch in her voice.

"No one need be that," observed Olive. "Father says that misery is a sign
of mental weakness."

Mrs. Lorimer was silent.

"Don't you think you had better leave off crying and find something to
do?" suggested her daughter in her cool, young voice.

Still Mrs. Lorimer neither moved nor spoke.

Olive came a step nearer. There was obvious distaste on her face. "I
wish you would try to be a little brighter--for Father's sake," she
said. "I don't think you treat him very kindly."

It was evident that she spoke from a sense of duty. Mrs. Lorimer
straightened herself with another weary sigh.

"Run along, my dear!" she said. "I am sure you are busy."

Olive turned, half-vexed and half-relieved, and walked to the door. Her
mother watched her wistfully. It was in her mind to call her back, fold
her in her arms, and appeal for sympathy. But the severity of the child's
pose was too suggestive of the Vicar's unbending attitude towards
feminine weakness, and she restrained the impulse, knowing that she would
appeal in vain. There was infinitely more comfort to be found in the
society of Baby Phil, and, smiling wanly at the thought, she went up to
the nursery in search of it.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE LAST DEBT

There was no combating the Vicar's decision. Avery realized that fact
from the outset even before Mrs. Lorimer's agitated note upon the subject
reached her. The fiat had gone forth, and submission was the only course.

Jeanie received the news without a murmur. "I don't mind really," she
said. "It's very nice here, but then it's nice at home too when you are
there. And then t