d it."

"Raven! Raven! Oh, stop! Not a word, Mandy." Her voice was hushed and
there was a look of pain in her eyes.

"But Smith!" went on Mandy relentlessly. "I was too disgusted."

"Well, what is wrong with Mr. Smith?" inquired Moira, her chin rising.

"Oh, there is nothing wrong with Smith," replied her sister-in-law
crossly, "but--well--kissing him, you know."

"Kissing him?" echoed Moira faintly. "Kissing him? I did not--"

"It looked to me uncommonly like it at any rate," said Mandy. "You
surely don't deny that you were kissing him?"

"I was not. I mean, it was Smith--perhaps--yes, I think Smith did--"

"Well, it was a silly thing to do."

"Silly! If I want to kiss Mr. Smith, why is it anybody's business?"

"That's just it," said Mandy indignantly. "Why should you want to?"

"Well, that is my affair," said Moira in an angry tone, and with a high
head and lofty air she appeared in the doctor's presence.

But Dr. Martin was apparently oblivious of both her lofty air and the
angle of her chin. He was struggling to suppress from observation a
tumult of mingled passions of jealousy, rage and humiliation. That this
girl whom for four years he had loved with the full strength of his
intense nature should have given herself to another was grief enough;
but the fact that this other should have been a man of Smith's caliber
seemed to add insult to his grief. He felt that not only had she
humiliated him but herself as well.

"If she is the kind of girl that enjoys kissing Smith I don't want her,"
he said to himself savagely, and then cursed himself that he knew it was
a lie. For no matter how she should affront him or humiliate herself
he well knew he should take her gladly on his bended knees from Smith's
hands. The cure somehow was not working, but he would allow no one to
suspect it. His voice was even and his manner cheerful as ever. Only
Mrs. Cameron, who held the key to his heart, suspected the agony through
which he was passing during the tea-hour. And it was to secure respite
for him that the tea was hurried and the doctor packed off to saddle
Pepper and round up the cows for the milking.

Pepper was by birth and breeding a cow-horse, and once set upon a trail
after a bunch of cows he could be trusted to round them up with little
or no aid from his rider. Hence once astride Pepper and Pepper with his
nose pointed toward the ranging cows, the doctor could allow his heart
to roam at will. And like a homin