She was alone when it came.

Her heart beat furiously as she opened it. Even if he only sent a
little it would be so welcome now when they were almost at the end.
If he had been generous how wonderful it would be for her to help
the man to whom nothing was too much to give her. The fact that her
brother had cabled strengthened the belief that he had hastened to
come to her rescue. She opened the cable and read it. Then she fell
back on the pillow with a low, faint moan.

When, hours later, O'Connell returned from a vain search for work he
found her senseless, with the cable in her fingers. He tried to
recover her without success. He sent a neighbour for a doctor. As he
watched the worn, patient face, his heart full to bursting, the
thought flashed through him--what could have happened to cause this
collapse? He became conscious of the cable he had found tightly
clasped in her hand. He picked it up and read it. It was very brief:

You have made your bed, lie in it.

Nathaniel Kingsnorth.

was all it said.




CHAPTER III

THE BIRTH OF PEG