igure; but the spirit that animated her gaunt arms was
the self-same one that captured Vimy Ridge and held the German legions
back from Verdun.

It is not the least likely, however, that this consideration was the
one which appealed most strongly to Mr. Pryor when he drove past one
afternoon and saw Susan pitching sheaves gamely.

"Smart woman that," he reflected. "Worth two of many a younger one yet.
I might do worse--I might do worse. If Milgrave comes home alive I'll
lose Miranda and hired housekeepers cost more than a wife and are
liable to leave a man in the lurch any time. I'll think it over."

A week later Mrs. Blythe, coming up from the village late in the
afternoon, paused at the gate of Ingleside in an amazement which
temporarily bereft her of the power of motion. An extraordinary sight
met her eyes. Round the end of the kitchen burst Mr. Pryor, running as
stout, pompous Mr. Pryor had not run in years, with terror imprinted on
every lineament--a terror quite justifiable, for behind him, like an
avenging fate, came Susan, with a huge, smoking iron pot grasped in her
hands, and an expression in her eye that boded ill to the object of her
indignation, if she should overtake him. Pursuer and pursued tore
across the lawn. Mr. Pryor reached the gate a few feet ahead of Susan,
wrenched it open, and fled down the road, without a glance at the
transfixed lady of Ingleside.

"Susan," gasped Anne.

Susan halted in her mad career, set down her pot, and shook her fist
after Mr. Pryor, who had not ceased to run, evidently believing that
Susan was still full cry after him.

"Susan, what does this mean?" demanded Anne, a little severely.

"You may well ask that, Mrs. Dr. dear," Susan replied wrathfully. "I
have not been so upset in years. That--that--that pacifist has actually
had the audacity to come up here and, in my own kitchen, to ask me to
marry him. HIM!"

Anne choked back a laugh.

"But--Susan! Couldn't you have found a--well, a less spectacular method
of refusing him? Think what a gossip this would have made if anyone had
been going past and had seen such a performance."

"Indeed, Mrs. Dr. dear, you are quite right. I did not think of it
because I was quite past thinking rationally. I was just clean mad.
Come in the house and I will tell you all about it."

Susan picked up her pot and marched into the kitchen, still trembling
with wrathful excitement. She set her pot on the stove with a vicious
thud. "W