But if you will leave me to find my own way, I will try to prepare a way of getting honourably out of it." "There is no honour in such a matter." "Well, well, it's just how you look at it.

But if you'll give me six months, I'll work it so that I can leave without being ashamed to look others in the face." The girl laughed with joy.

"Six months!" she cried.

"Is it a promise ?" "Well, it may be seven or eight.

But within a year at the furthest we will leave the valley behind us." It was the most that Ettie could obtain, and yet it was something.