An Old, Unhappy, Far-off Thing

“Master, you didn’t know my sister. We had to give in — nobody could hold out against her. She was a strange woman — and a terrible woman in many ways —— after her trouble. We were afraid to cross her for fear she would go out of her mind.”

“ But, could you not have taken Kil- meny to a doctor unknown to her mother? ”

“ No, that was not possible. Mar— garet never let her out of her sight, not even when she was grown up. Be— sides, to tell you the whole truth, Mas— ter, we didn’t think ourselves that it would be much use to try to cure Kil- meny. It was a sin that made her as she is.”

“Aunt Janet, how can you talk such nonsense? Where was there any sin? Your sister thought herself a lawful wife. If Ronald Fraser thought otherwise —— and there is no proof that he did—he committed a sin, but you surely do not

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