"So am I, I think," said Eugene, wanly. "Good-
bye. I'm going now to see mother, but I'll be gone
before you come home."

"Gone where?"

"Just away. I don't know where," Eugene
answered from the door. "I couldn't live here any
longer. I--"

"You've been drinking," said Mr. Louden,
inspired. "You'd better not let Mamie Pike see
you."

Eugene laughed desolately. "I don't mean to.
I shall write to her. Good-bye," he said, and was
gone before Mr. Louden could restore enough
order out of the chaos in his mind to stop him.

Thus Mrs. Louden's long wait at the window
was tragically rewarded, and she became an
unhappy actor in Canaan's drama of that day. Other
ladies attended at other windows, or near their
front doors, throughout the afternoon: the families
of the three patriarchs awaiting their return, as
the time drew on, with something akin to frenzy.
Mrs. Flitcroft (a lady of temper), whose rheumatism
confined her to a chair, had her grandson
wheel her out upon the porch, and, as the dusk