piece which, through all his
adventures, he had worn pinned to his inner clothing, "a make-piece
offering" to his mother he reached the brown stone steps to his
father's city mansion.

There, for the first time, he hesitated. All the bitterness with which
he had descended those steps, banished in disgrace, was keenly
remembered.

"Can I, shall I, dare I go up and ring that bell?"

A vision floated before him. Margot's earnest face and tear-dimmed
eyes. Her lips speaking:

"If I had father or mother anywhere--nothing should ever make me leave
them. I would bear everything--but I would be true to them."

An instant later a peal rang through that silent house, such as it had
not echoed in many a day. What would be the answer to it?

CHAPTER XVII

IN THE HOUR OF DARKNESS

"No sign yet?"

"No sign." Margot's tone was almost hopeless. Day after day, many
times each day, she had climbed the pine-tree flagstaff and peered
into the distance. Not once had anything been visible, save that wide
stretch of forest and the shining lake.

"Suppose you cross again, to old Joe's. He might be back by this time.
I'll fix you a bite of dinner, and you better. Maybe----"

The girl shook her head and clasped her arms about old Angelique's
neck. Then the long repressed grief burst forth in dry sobs that shook
them both, and pierced the housekeeper's faithful heart with a pain
beyond endurance.

"Pst! Pouf! Hush, sweetheart, hush! 'Tis nought. A few days more and
the master will be well. A few days more and Pierre will come---- Ah!
but I had my hands about his ears this minute! That would teach him,
yes, to turn his back on duty, him. The ingrate! Well, what the Lord
sends the body must bear."

Margot lifted her head, shook back her hair, and smiled wanly. The
veriest ghost of her old smile, it was, yet even such a delight to the
other's eyes.

"Good. That's right. Rouse up. There's a wing of a fowl in the
cupboard, left from the master's broth----"

"Angelique, he didn't touch it, to-day. Not even touch it."

"'Tis nought. When the fever is on the appetite is gone. Will be all
right once that is over."

"But, will it ever be over? Day after day, just the same. Always that
tossing to and fro, the queer, jumbled talk, the growing thinner--all
of the dreadful signs of how he suffers. Angelique, if I could bear it
for him! I am so young and strong and worth nothing to this world
while he's so wise and good. Everybo