her telegram
from Mrs. Crozier stating the time of her expected arrival at Askatoon.
It was addressed to Kitty, and Kitty almost savagely tore it up into
little pieces and scattered it to the winds. She did not even wait to
show it to the Young Doctor; but he had a subtle instinct as to why she
did not; and he was rather more puzzled than usual at what was passing
before his eyes. In any case, the coming of the wife must alter all
the relations existing in the household of the widow Tynan. The old,
unrestrained, careless friendship could not continue. The newcomer
would import an element of caste and class which would freeze mother and
daughter to the bones. Crozier was the essence of democracy, which in
its purest form is akin to the most aristocratic element and is easily
affiliated with it. He had no fear of Crozier. Crozier would remain
exactly the same; but would not Crozier be whisked away out of Askatoon
to a new fate, reconciled to being a receiver of his wife's bounty.

"If his wife gets her arms round his neck, and if she wants to get them
there, she will, and once there he'll go with her like a gentleman,"
said the Young Doctor sarcastically. Admiring Crozier as he did, he also
had underneath all his knowledge of life an unreasonable apprehension
of man's weakness where a woman was concerned. The man who would face
a cannon's mouth would falter before the face of a woman whom he could
crumple with one hand.

The wife arrived before Crozier returned, and the Young Doctor and
Kitty met the train. The local operator had not divulged to any one the
contents of the telegram to Kitty, and there were no staring spectators
on the platform. As the great express stole in almost noiselessly, like
a tired serpent, Kitty watched its approach with outward cheerfulness.
She had braced herself to this moment, till she looked the most buoyant,
joyous thing in the world. It had not come easily. With desperation she
had fought a fight during these three lonely days, till at last she had
conquered, sleeping each night on Crozier's star-lit bed of boughs and
coming in with the silver-grey light of dawn. Now she leaned forward
with heart beating fast; but with smiling face and with eyes so bright
that she deceived the Young Doctor.

There was no sign of inward emotion, of hidden troubles, as she leaned
forward to see the great lady step from the train--great in every sense
was this lady in her mind; imposing in stature, a Juno,