"Nellie," he said at length, taking a seat near by. "I'm very sorry you're
going away. What will the place be like without you?"
"Yes, I'm sorry to go, Stephen," was the low reply. "'Tis hard to go away
from home, especially under--under a cloud."
"But, surely, Nellie, you don't think the people believe those stories?"
"No, not all. But some do, and it's so hard on father. He has had so much
trouble lately with that mining property in British Columbia, and now this
has come."
Stephen sat thinking for a while before he spoke. When at last he did he
looked searchingly into Nellie's face.
"There is something which puzzles me very much, and partly for that reason
I have come to see you to-night."
"Anything more in connection with father, Stephen?"
"Yes. Nora has been worse of late, and the doctor said that the only hope
of curing her was to send her to New York to a specialist. Mother was very
much depressed, for we have no means, and under the circumstances it is so
hard to hire money. I had about made up my mind to get some money advanced
on the logs. I would do anything for Nora's sake.
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