The girl hid her face in her friend's dress. "It was awful." She spoke without looking up. "But, O Mag--Doctor Jim was fine--so gentle, so kind. The Judge thought he would cuss around a lot, but he didn't--not even to him--the Judge said. And the Doctor came to me as bashful and--as--well, your own father couldn't have been better to you. So I just quit, and the Judge got me the job in the Company store and the Doctor drops in and she--yes, Mag, the Judge's wife comes with the Doctor sometimes, and now it's been five months to-day since I left the court reporter's work and I have hardly seen the Judge to speak to him since. But they all know, I guess, but mamma, and I sometimes think folks try to talk to her; and that old man Sands comes snooping and snickering around like an old dog hunting a buried bone, and he's my job, and I don't know what to do." Neither did Margaret know what to do, so she let her go and let her stay, and knew her old friend no more. For Margaret was rising in the world, and could have no encumbrances; and Miss Mauling disappeared in South Harvey and that New Year's Eve marked the sad anniversary of the break in her relations with Mrs. Fenn. And it is all set down here on this anniversary to show what a jolty journey some of us make as we jog around the sun, and to show the gentle reader how the proud Mr. Van Dorn hunts his prey and what splendid romances he enjoys and what a fair sportsman he is. But the old year is restless. It has painted the sky of South Harvey with the smoke of a score of smelter chimneys; it has burned in the drab of the dejected-looking houses, and it has added a few dozen new ones for the men and their families who operate the smelter.