"Lorna, you are right to give up Ralph Endicott. Tobias says you ain’t. He ’pears to think you two was made for each other. But if Ralph is so determined about seagoing I don’t wonder that you give him over." "But, Miss Heppy!" cried Lorna, "I am not at all sure Ralph cares particularly for me. I—I think he is all over that." Miss Heppy, sitting up in bed with her nightcap awry, stopped sipping her tea for a moment to look over the cup at the younger woman. "Be you blind, Lorna Nicholet?" she asked. "Why, of course not!" "You must be if you can’t see that that boy is crazy about you. He goes mooning around here like a stray pup. I never did see anybody take it so hard as he does." "Take what so hard?" demanded Lorna, with some exasperation. "Your turning of him down the way you have," rejoined Miss Heppy more briskly. "Now, don’t say you can’t see it. Ralph Endicott isn’t one that gets over a hurt easy. His feelin’s air deep. Your running about with Mr. Degger just about finished Ralph." "Why, Miss Heppy!" complained Lorna, "you are very much mistaken. He doesn’t care anything about me at all. I know how he acts, I hope, when we are alone together——" "You give him his orders long ago, didn’t you?" said the shrewd old woman. "I heard you. Right here in this lighthouse." "Oh! You mean that night we got stuck in the snowdrift?" The young woman flushed more deeply. "But I was angry. We were both angry." "Uh-huh!" rejoined her friend. "And I told you long ago that I would not allow the family to force me into a marriage that I did not want and with a man of whom my heart did not approve." "I know—I know, my dear," said the old woman, nodding. "And I am not blaming you. Besides, I do think Mr. Degger is an awful friendly young man." Lorna winced at this. Her head was turned so that Miss Heppy could not see her face. "Somehow, Tobias don’t seem to like Mr. Degger," went on the lightkeeper’s sister. "But I never did think all the wisdom in the world was lodged under Tobias’s sou’wester. No, indeed! You have a perfect right to say no to Ralph. But that don’t keep me from being sorry for him, just the same." "I am quite sure you are mistaken, dear Miss Heppy," Lorna rejoined seriously. "I mean about Ralph’s caring anything for me—in that way. Of course we are friends. I—I should feel very bad if I thought he was in danger." "And he certainly is, my child, if he is out in this gale," groaned Miss Heppy in her most lachrymose manner. "Ain’t a mite o’ doubt of that." Lorna carried away the tray, urging the old woman to remain in bed for the day. Even if Miss Heppy’s illness was mostly of the mind, resting in bed would do her more good than any medicine. But Lorna was glad to have the work of clearing up the house on her hands. Bodily exercise eased _her_ mind.