Kilmeny of the Orchard

and honest people, even if they were a little peculiar.

“ Mrs. Gordon died a few years after they came out, and four years later James Gordon went home to Scotland and brought a new wife back with him. She was a great deal younger than he was and a very pretty woman, as my mother often told me. She was friendly and gay and liked social life. The Gordon place was a very different sort of place after she came there, and even Janet and, Thomas got thawed out and softened down a good bit. They were real fond of their stepmother, I’ve heard. Then, six years after she was married, the second Mrs. Gordon died too. She died when Margaret was born. They say James Gordon almost broke his heart over it.

“ Janet brought Margaret up. She and Thomas just worshipped the child and so did their father. I knew Margaret Gor- don well once. We were just the same age and we set together in school. We

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