t she did not rebuke or correct
her.

"How do you do, Mrs. Morrell," said Suzette, with rather a haughty
distance; but Matt felt that she kept aloof with the pride of a person
who comes from an infected house, and will not put herself at the risk
of avoidance. "I wished to see Dr. Morrell about my sister. She isn't
well. Will you kindly ask him to call?"

"I will send him as soon as he comes," said Mrs. Morrell, giving Matt
that glance of liking which no good woman could withhold. "Unless," she
added, "you would like to come in and wait for him."

"Thank you, no," said Suzette. "I must go back to her. Good-by."

"Good-by!" said Mrs. Morrell.

Matt raised his hat and silently bowed; but as they turned away, he said
to Suzette, "What a happy face! What a lovely face! What a _good_ face!"

"She is a very good woman," said the girl. "She has been very kind to
us. But so has everybody. I couldn't have believed it." In fact, it was
only the kindness of their neighbors that had come near the defaulter's
daughters; the harshness and the hate had kept away.

"Why shouldn't they be kind?" Matt demanded, with his heart instantly in
his throat. "I can't imagine--at such a time--Don't you know that I love
you?" he entreated, as if that exactly followed; there was, perhaps, a
subtle spiritual sequence, transcending all order of logic in the
expression of his passion.

She looked at him over her shoulder as he walked by her side, and said,
with neither surprise nor joy, "How can you say such a thing to me?"

"Because it is true! Because I can't help it! Because I wish to be
everything to you, and I have to begin by saying that. But don't answer
me now; you need never answer me. I only wish you to use me as you would
use some one who loved you beyond anything on earth,--as freely as that,
and yet not be bound or hampered by me in the least. Can you do that? I
mean, can you feel, 'This is my best friend, the truest friend that any
one can have, and I will let him do anything and everything he wishes
for me.' Can you do that,--say that?"

"But how could I do that? I don't understand you!" she said, faintly.

"Don't you? I am so glad you don't drive me from you--"

"I? _You!_"

"I was afraid--But now we can speak reasonably about it; I don't see why
people shouldn't. I know it's shocking to speak to you of such a thing
at such a time. It's dreadful; and yet I can't feel wrong to have done
it! No! If it's as sacred as it see