before had crippled their resources; his last Christmas
present to Clare had been a heavy drain; he had
not yet recovered from the generous funeral he had
given their mother.

He was unaccustomed to such considerations.
They interfered with the large view he held of himself,
of his importance, his deserts; they limited his
necessity for a natural indifference to penny matters;
and he dismissed them with an uneasy movement of
his shoulders.

He passed the discolored, plaster bulk of the Presbyterian
Church, the drug store and dwelling of Dr.
Pelliter, and was on the outskirts of the village.
The shadow of the western range had now slipped
across the valley and nearly climbed the opposite
wall; lavender scarfs of mist veiled the far, jumbled
peaks in the darkling rift; slim, swaying columns
of smoke from the clustered chimneys of
Greenstream towered dizzily through the shaded
air to where, high above, they were transformed to
gold by the last, up-flung rays of the sun.

[[36]]

p035 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p036w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p037

v?