Seated in an arm-chair before the stove, enveloped in the Cub’s striped blanket wrapper, her hair pushed out of her eyes, and her slippered feet resting on the oven ledge, Miss Keith looked about the kitchen and then at Mrs. Lawton, who had quietly taken a seat beside her as if expectant of some new sort of outbreak, while Brooke went for a stimulant, and mixing some whiskey and water, held it to the thin, teetotal lips, that at first sipped dubiously and then quaffed eagerly, as she felt vitality returning in the wake of the draught. “Are you not better, and will you not tell us what has happened?” asked Mrs. Lawton, in the precise, deliberate staccato speech by which the calmest people often show that they are nervous. “Did you write us that you were coming? And why, pray, did you not take Bisbee’s hack from the station, instead of risking such a walk in a storm like this?” “Because I am a fool!” jerked Miss Keith; “I wanted to get here without being seen; I hoped you would let me hide for a few days until I could think out where to go and what to do! I came on the train as far as Stonebridge, and when I boarded the trolley it promised to clear off. If I’d taken Bisbee’s hack, the talk of me would have been all over town and into prayer-meetin’ to-night. This is Wednesday, isn’t it?” “No, Tuesday,” replied Brooke, soothingly, exchanging an anxious glance with her mother, which as much as said, “Yes, the poor soul is deranged,” while at the same time she was revolving in her mind how she could manage, without attracting attention, to send Adam for Dr. Love, a young physician of Dr. Russell’s recommending, who had lately established himself in Gilead, hitherto the people of the River Kingdom having been obliged to send either to Stonebridge or Gordon. Swift as the glance was, Miss Keith, who was rapidly recovering herself, caught it in passing and, moreover, read its full meaning. “I’m not crazy, nor coming down with typhoid, nor dying from justice!” she announced in a tone of suppressed excitement that was far from reassuring. “In that I have proved scripture (not that it needed proving), my visit of the last three months has been a success. Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. My pride is gone and I have fallen—” “Oh, Keith!” said Mrs. Lawton, faintly. “In spirit, from my high aspirations,” she continued, not heeding the interruption nor the sudden painful colour that suffused Mrs. Lawton’s face. “Also a fool and his money are soon parted, likewise my money and me. So I am, as I said before, a fool, but one who would like a few days to review her folly before the minister and the neighbours feel called upon to wrestle with her about it.” Light was beginning to dawn upon Mrs. Lawton and Brooke, though as yet the clouds were by no means lifted.