ate nature. Nothing could make her believe the charge of forgery which was preferred against him. There had been some mistake, she was certain, and he had been basely wronged. Some day he would be proven innocent, the guilty ones exposed, and the Brisbane name cleared of infamy. Her mother believed the same, and thus through the years the two waited in patient hope. But they waited in vain. The exile did not return, so his deed remained a part of the history of the little town, and a blot upon the family escutcheon.
Ten years passed and no word from the absent one reached the mother and daughter. They knew, however, that he must be alive, for regularly twice a year money reached them through a local bank. It was a liberal amount, deposited to their credit, although the circumstances surrounding it were not divulged. But they were certain who sent it, and it was a steady reminder to them that he was in the land of the living and might one day return. Mrs. Brisbane cherished this hope until the last, and ere she died she expressed the wish that Marion should search diligently for her father. This the girl willingly agreed to do, for the idea had been lodging in her own mind for some time.
In order to carry out her design, Marion became a nurse. The west called to her, for she firmly believed that there her father had gone. After practising for two years in a city on the Pacific coast, she responded to an appeal from the far north. The new hospital at Kynox was in need of nurses, and she was at once placed in charge. It was a position of considerable responsibility, but she fulfilled her duties in a highly creditable manner. Her charming disposition, and her readiness to sacrifice herself for others, won all hearts.
