for and that we must not take lest the penalty be too great?
It was an hour of quickened sensibilities for both of us. For me, a deepened sense of the Reaper's silent footsteps that go ceaselessly to and fro leaving broken hopes and stagnant waters behind. For that dim child-soul beside me, caged in heavy man's form, stricken and robbed of all that gave savor and meaning to life—who shall say what it meant?
"I mus' go back," he said suddenly and simply. "Good-night Mem, an' thank ye kindly."
I could hear his heavy feet stumbling down the rocky path to the landing in the dark, till the rushing winds and darkness swallowed him up.
The least we could do was to postpone our departure, and see him through the burden of the next few days. There was a hectic flush about him, an unnatural glitter in his eye betokening unwonted excitement. I dreaded for him what must inevitably follow—the long winter's reaction, whether it should be spent in his own lonely abode, or in the home of his brother-in-law some miles beyond, and which I understood was always open to him. It was
