n rose and her niece after her. "Still, I believe it is
warranted, and you will remember there are two women who have trusted
you, hoping for your success. And now, I fancy we have kept you too
long."

Winston stood holding the door open a moment, with his head bent, and
then suddenly straightened himself.

"I can at least be honest with you in this venture," he said with a
curious quietness.

Nothing further was said, but when his guests drove away Winston sat
still a while and then went back very grim in face to his plowing. He
had passed other unpleasant moments of that kind since he came to
Silverdale, and long afterwards the memory of them brought a flush to
his face. The excuses he had made seemed worthless when he strove to
view what he had done, and was doing, through those women's eyes.

It was dusk when he returned to the homestead, worn, out in body but
more tranquil in mind, and stopped a moment in the doorway to look back
on the darkening sweep of the plowing. He felt with no misgivings that
his time of triumph would come, and in the meanwhile the handling of
this great farm with all the aids that money could buy him was a keen
joy to him; but each time he met Maud Barrington's eyes he realized the
more surely that the hour of his success must also see accomplished an
act of abnegation, which he wondered with a growing fear whether he
could find the strength for. Then as he went in a man who cooked for
his hired assistants came to meet him.

"There's a stranger inside waiting for you," he said. "Wouldn't tell
me what he wanted, but sat right down as if the place was his, and
helped himself without asking to your cigars. Wanted something to
drink, too, and smiled at me kind of wicked when I brought him the
cider."

The room was almost dark when Winston entered it, and stood still a
moment staring at a man who sat, cigar in hand, quietly watching him.
His appearance was curiously familiar, but Winston could not see his
face until he moved forward another step or two. Then he stopped once
more, and the two saying nothing looked at one another. It was Winston
who spoke first, and his voice was very even.

"What do you want here?" he asked.

The other man laughed. "Isn't that a curious question when the place
is mine? You don't seem overjoyed to see me come to life again."

Winston sat down and slowly lighted a cigar. "We need not go into
that. I asked you what you want."

"Well," said