g to hate the thought of giving up Rosalie's
readings, her ministrations, and the no uncertain development of his own
opinions as to her personal attractiveness.

"I don't know when I'll be able to walk, Watkins," he said to the
caretaker. "I'm afraid my heart is affected."

Bonner's enforced presence at Anderson Crow's home was the source of
extreme annoyance to the young men of the town. "Blootch" Peabody
created a frightful scandal by getting boiling drunk toward the end of
the week, so great was his dejection. As it was his first real spree, he
did not recover from the effect for three days. He then took the pledge,
and talked about the evils of strong drink with so much feeling at
prayer meeting that the women of the town inaugurated a movement to stop
the sale of liquor in the town. As Peabody's drug store was the only
place where whiskey could be obtained, "Blootch" soon saw the error of
his ways and came down from his pedestal to mend them.

Bonner was a friend in need to Anderson Crow. The two were in
consultation half of the time, and the young man's opinions were not to
be disregarded. He advanced a theory concerning the motives of the
leader in the plot to send Rosalie into an exile from which she was not
expected to return. It was his belief that the person who abandoned her
as a babe was actuated by the desire to possess a fortune which should
have been the child's. The conditions attending the final disposition of
this fortune doubtless were such as to make it unwise to destroy the
girl's life. The plotter, whatever his or her relation to the child may
have been, must have felt that a time might come when the existence of
the real heiress would be necessary. Either such a fear was the
inspiration or the relationship was so dear that the heart of the
arch-plotter was full of love for the innocent victim.

"Who is to say, Miss Gray," said Bonner one night as they sat before the
fire, "that the woman who left you with Mr. Crow was not your own
mother? Suppose that a vast estate was to be yours in trust after the
death of some rich relative, say grandparent. It would naturally mean
that some one else resented this bequest, and probably with some
justice. The property was to become your own when you attained a certain
age, let us say. Don't you see that the day would rob the disinherited
person of every hope to retain the fortune? Even a mother might be
tempted, for ambitious reasons, to go to extreme measu