l the winter, so
the burden is familiar already," she protested, with a wan smile
and a sinking at her heart, for she did not like business, and
always shrank from the bother of bargaining, which afforded such
keen zest to some people's buying and selling.

"That was quite different from what lies before you now," he
replied. "You may have had the work to do, but you had always your
father's judgment to rely upon. In future you will have to stand
alone and judge for yourself."

Katherine bowed her head in token that she understood, then turned
away too crushed to utter a word. Jervis Ferrars went back to the
sickroom, wincing at the pain he had been compelled to inflict as
if the blow had fallen on himself. There were no tears in
Katherine's eyes, only the terrible black misery in her heart. She
had filled in all the blanks in what, the Englishman had said, and
she understood perfectly well that henceforth her father would be
only as a child who needed guarding and shielding, instead of a man
whose judgment could be relied upon. She had no deception in her
mind concerning what would be required of her; the family living
must depend on her in the future, and it would rest upon her skill
and industry whether the living she earned were merely subsistence,
or the decent comfort in which they had all been reared.

"God helping me, they shall want for nothing--nothing!" she
exclaimed vehemently, and the very energy with which she spoke
seemed to give her back her courage.

It had been a momentous day in her life, a day calling for rare
courage and endurance, and the demands on her strength had left her
so tired that the other hard days looming in the near distance
seemed all the more terrible because of the present exhaustion of
body and mind. It was nearly time for shutting up the store, but
it was twilight still, for in those northern latitudes the
afterglow on clear nights lasts for hours. Katherine was busy at
her father's desk in the corner doing the necessary writing which
comes to every storekeeper at the close of the day, and she was
just wondering when Miles was coming to lock the door and fold the
shutter over the one small window, when she heard a slouching step
outside, and, glancing up, saw Oily Dave entering at the door. He
looked more shifty and slippery than usual, but his manner was
bland, even deferential, when he spoke.

"Good evening, Miss Radford! Nice thaw, ain't it? but a bit rapid.
How