smay.
He was humiliated by the thought that he had accepted many favours from
Leslie's father and been a welcome guest many, many times at her home,
and he wondered miserably if Helen Murray held the same opinion as Fred.

He came back to his office the next morning determined to avoid Leslie
Graham, no matter what the consequence.

She called him on the telephone, wrote dainty notes, and strolled past
the office at the time when he was likely to be leaving, all to no
avail. Roderick was buried in work, and slowly but surely the
knowledge began to dawn upon the girl that she, with all her
attractions, was being gently but firmly put aside.

And so the winter sped away on the swift wheels of busy days, and when
spring came the local option petition began to circulate. And once
more Roderick escaped the necessity of declaring himself.

The firm of Elliot and Kent, with whom he had worked in the North,
wished to consult him, and he was summoned to Montreal for a week.

Lawyer Ed saw him off at the station fairly puffed up with pride over
his boy's importance.

When Roderick returned, the petition was signed, and sent away, and
Lawyer Ed was jubilating over the fact that they could have got far
more names if they had wanted them. And Roderick comforted himself
with the thought that his was not needed after all.

The excitement subsided for a time after this, the real hard
preparation for voting day would not commence until the autumn, so J.
P. Thornton was seized with the grand idea that the coming summer was
surely the heaven-decreed occasion upon which to go off on that
long-deferred holiday. The inspiration came to him one day when he had
telephoned Lawyer Ed twice and called at his office three times to find
him out each time.

"Is this the office of Brians and McRae or only McRae?" he asked when
Roderick informed him for the third time that his chief was absent.

"Well, it isn't often like this," said the junior partner
apologetically. "We'll get back to our old routine when my chief gets
over his local option excitement."

"If you can run this business alone during a Local Option to-do, I see
no reason why you couldn't while we take three months holidays, do you?"

"No, I do not," said Roderick heartily. "Can't you make Lawyer Ed go
to the Holy Land this spring? I'll do anything to help him go. He
needs a rest."

J. P. Thornton looked at the young man smiling reminiscently. He was
recalling the