ould have taken wing, just as she had. She had made
failures, she had hurt herself, mind and body, but her honour, her
self-respect were intact. Suddenly she sat straight. She was glad that
she had taken a bath, worn a reasonably decent dress, and had a better
one in the back of the buggy. She would cut the Gordian knot with a
vengeance. She would not wait to see how they treated her, she would
treat them! As for Adam's state, there was only one surmise she could
make, and that seemed so incredible, she decided to wait until her
mother told her all about whatever the trouble was.

As they came in sight of the house, queer feelings took possession of
Kate. She struggled to think kindly of her father; she tried to feel
pangs of grief over his passing. She was too forthright and had too
good memory to succeed. Home had been so unbearable that she had taken
desperate measures to escape it, but as the white house with its tree
and shrub filled yard could be seen more plainly, Kate suddenly was
filled with the strongest possessive feeling she ever had known. It
was home. It was her home. Her place was there, even as Adam had
said. She felt a sudden revulsion against herself that she had stayed
away seven years; she should have taken her chances and at least gone
to see her mother. She leaned from the buggy and watched for the first
glimpse of the tall, gaunt, dark woman, who had brought their big brood
into the world and stood squarely with her husband, against every one
of them, in each thing he proposed.

Now he was gone. No doubt he had carried out his intentions. No doubt
she was standing by him as always. Kate gathered her skirts, but Adam
passed the house, driving furiously as ever, and he only slackened
speed when he was forced to at the turn from the road to the lane. He
stopped the buggy in the barnyard, got out, and began unharnessing the
horse. Kate sat still and watched him until he led it away, then she
stepped down and started across the barnyard, down the lane leading to
the dooryard. As she closed the yard gate and rounded a widely
spreading snowball bush, her heart was pounding wildly. What was
coming? How would the other boys act, if Adam, the best balanced man
of them all, was behaving as he was? How would her mother greet her?
With the thought, Kate realized that she was so homesick for her mother
that she would do or give anything in the world to see her. Then there
was a dragging s