ces which he was willing to call fortunate, Edward
Raymer was at the curb to help her down from her high seat in the trap
when she pulled the big horse to a stand in front of her father's bank.

"I'm the luckiest man in Red Earth County; I was just wondering when I
should get in line to tell you how glad we are to have you back," he
said, with his eyes shining.

"Are you, really? You are not half as glad as I am to be back. There is
no place like home, you know."

"There isn't, and there oughtn't to be," was his quick response. "I've
been hoping you'd come to look upon Wahaska as your home, and now I know
you do."

"Why shouldn't I?" she laughed, and she was reaching for a paper-wrapped
package on the trap seat when he got it for her.

"You are going somewhere?--may I carry it for you?" he asked; but she
shook her head and took it from him.

"Only into the bank," she explained; and she was beginning to tell him
he must come to Mereside when the sick-man episode obtruded itself, and
the invitation was broken in the midst, very prettily, very effectively.

"I know," Raymer said, in instant sympathy. "You have your hands full
just now. Will you let me say that it's the finest thing I ever heard
of--your taking that poor fellow home and caring for him?"

Gertrude Raymer had once said in her brother's hearing that Miss
Grierson's color would be charming if it were only natural. Looking into
Miss Grierson's eyes Raymer saw the refutation of the slander in the
suffusing wave of generous embarrassment deepening in warm tints on the
perfect neck and cheek.

"Oh, dear me!" she said in pathetic protest; "is it all over town so
soon? I'm afraid we are still dreadfully 'country' in Wahaska, Mr.
Raymer. Please cut it down to the bare, commonplace facts whenever you
have a chance, won't you? The poor man was sick, and nobody knew him,
and somebody _had_ to take care of him."

Like the doctor, Raymer asked the inevitable question, "Who is he, Miss
Margery?" and, like the doctor again, he received the same answer, "I
haven't the smallest notion of an idea. But that doesn't make the
slightest difference," she went on. "He is a fellow human being, sick
and helpless. That ought to be enough for any of us to know."

Raymer stood watching her as she tripped lightly into the bank, and when
he went to catch his car the conservative minority had lost whatever
countenance or support he had ever given it.

"She's pure gold when you