Such epochs end in point of duration however
lasting the stamp they leave upon their product and
the day came when Miss Downs' mission at least

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to that family was done and Mrs. Digby could
soften the break to herself and to the children in
the excitement of a journey home, long pondered
and discussed, but which seemed nevertheless dras-
tic and swift in its execution. She came back with-
out the youngsters; even little Madeleine, now ten
years old, was left behind to attend school under
the guardianship of pleased and sadly fleluded
grandparents. From that time on Mary appeared
to herself and her husband to be constantly packing
for a journey or unpacking from another ; a trip to
fetch the children, another to take them back, still
another because she was heartsick and one made
with the deliberate purpose of giving the baby of
the family a spanking she would not forget in a
year of Sundays.
During these comings and goings and long ab-
sences EUerton came back into his own; every
week-end and holiday that found him within reach
he spent at Mountain Acre, sometimes alone, some^
times accompanied by four or five men of the same
stamp as Digby and himself, long limbed or tubby
but all bronzed, cool of eye and steady of hand,
men who had gambled with fate and could yet find

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deep solace in those emblems of nationality, a game
of penny-ante or double pinochle at a quarter a
hundred.
