nd be the Governor, calm and
dignified, while hot irons were being applied to his heart by this
smiling girl.

"But, Miss Alice," he said, slowly, "I'm afraid you are wrong. I was
unfortunate enough to make Miss Lee very angry. I am afraid she would
think a message from me only an impertinence."

"Sir," said Alice, with decision, "I'm right sometimes, if I'm not
Governor; and it's better to be right than to be Governor, I've
heard--or something. You trust me. Just try the effect of a message, and
see if it isn't a success. What shall I say?"

The Governor was impetuous, and in spite of all the work he had done so
fiercely, the longing the work had been meant to quiet surged up as
strong as ever. "Miss Alice," he said, eagerly, "if you are right,
would it do--do you think I might deliver the message myself?"

"Do I think? Well, if _I_ were a man! Faint heart, you know!"

And the Governor, at that choppy eloquence, openly seized the friendly
young hand and wrung it till Alice begged, laughing but bruised, for
mercy. When he came up, later, to bid her good-night, his face was
bright, and,

"Good-night, Angel of Peace," he said.

* * * * *

Mary Mooney, who through the dark days had watched with anxious though
uncomprehending eyes her boy's dejection and hard effort to live it
down, and had applied partridges and sweetbreads and other forms of
devotion steadily but unsuccessfully, saw at once and with, rapture the
change when the Governor greeted her the next morning. Light-heartedly
she packed his traps two days later--she had done it jealously for
thirty-five years, though almost over the dead body of the Governor's
man sometimes in these later days. And when he told her good-by she had
her reward. The man's boyish heart went out in a burst of gratitude to
the tireless love that had sought only his happiness all his life. He
put his arm around the stout little woman's neck.

"Mary," he said, "I'm going to see Miss Lee."

Mary's pink cheeks were scarlet as she patted with a work-worn palm the
strong hand on her shoulder. "Then I know what will happen," she said,
"and I'm glad. And if you don't bring her back with you, Mr. Jack, I
won't let you in."

So the stately Governor went off like a schoolboy with his nurse's
blessing. And later like an arrow from a bow he swung around the corner
of the snowy piazza at Paul Smith's, where Mrs. Lee had told him he
would find her daughter. T