ig farm, and it pays, and he has got an interest in a mine,
and--"

"I tell you, you shan't," peevishly interjected Mrs. Tynan. "You shan't.
He's vicious. He's--oh, you shan't! I'd rather--"

"You'd rather I threw myself away--on a married man?" asked Kitty
covertly.

"My God--oh, Kitty!" said the other, breaking down. "You can't mean
it--oh, you can't mean that you'd--"

"I've got to work out my case in my own way," broke in Kitty calmly. "I
know how I've got to do it. I have to make my own medicine--and take it.
You say John Sibley is vicious. He has only got one vice."

"Isn't it enough? Gambling--"

"That isn't a vice; it's a sport. It's the same as Mr. Crozier had.
Mr. Crozier did it with horses only, the other does it with cards and
horses. The only vice John Sibley's got is me."

"Is you?" asked her mother bewilderedly.

"Well, when you've got an idea you can't control and it makes you its
slave, it's a vice. I'm John's vice, and I'm thinking of trying to cure
him of it--and cure myself too," Kitty added, folding and unfolding the
paper in her hand.

"Here comes the Young Doctor," said her mother, turning towards the
house. "I think you don't mean to marry Sibley, but if you do, make him
give up gambling."

"I don't know that I want him to give it up," answered Kitty musingly.

A moment later she was alone with the Young Doctor.

CHAPTER VIII. ALL ABOUT AN UNOPENED LETTER

"What's this you've been doing?" asked the Young Doctor, with a
quizzical smile. "We never can tell where you'll break out."

"Kitty Tynan's measles!" she rejoined, swinging her hat by its ribbon.
"Mine isn't a one-sided character, is it?"

"I know one of the sides quite well," returned the Young Doctor.

"Which, please, sir?"

The Young Doctor pretended to look wise. "The outside. I read it like a
book. It fits the life in which it moves like the paper on the wall. But
I'm not sure of the inside. In fact, I don't think I know that at all."

"So I couldn't call you in if my character was sick inside, could I?"
she asked obliquely.

"I might have an operation, and see what's wrong with it," he answered
playfully.

Suddenly she shivered. "I've had enough of operations to last me
awhile," she rejoined. "I thought I could stand anything, but your
operation on Mr. Crozier taught me a lesson. I'd never be a doctor's
wife if I had to help him cut up human beings."

"I'll remember that," the Young Doctor replied mocking