object of my visit here to-night."

"Doesn't your head trouble you too much to bother with it now?" the
clergyman asked, trying to look as sympathetic as possible. "Suppose
you wait until you feel better."

"No, I can't do that, for it might be too late. Just think what might
become of me and my poor fatherless children if I put it off until
to-morrow."

"Oh, is it as serious as that, Mrs. Marden?"

"Indeed it is, and it is but another example of how the widow is
oppressed. If poor Abner was only alive! But now that he is gone,
people think that they can do what they like with a lonely widow."

"What, has any one been trying to injure you, Mrs. Marden?"

"Yes, that's just it. Tom Dunker is the one, and he's trying to get
the lighthouse from me."

"Ah, so that's it?" and the parson gave a deep sigh.

"Yes. He's had the promise of it, so I understand. I've looked after
that lighthouse ever since Abner died, and I have never failed in my
duty once. But Tom Dunker, the sneak, wants it. He's a Government
supporter, and thinks he ought to have it for what he did at the last
election. Abner voted opposition, and though they let me keep it ever
since he died, the Dunkers have been making such a fuss about it that
something has to be done to pacify them."