at one above all others," and he held it up for her
admiration. It _was_ a beauty; the letters were exquisitely formed, and
the words were: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the
evil and the good." Then they chose, "Peace be to this house"--this for
the hall. And another favorite, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us."

"This is yours, Dora," Theodore said, presently, laying before her a
delicately shaded sentence on tinted board, "The Lord bless thee and
keep thee." And she smilingly answered: "Then this for you," "He shall
keep thee in all thy ways."

And so their homes were filled with lessons from the great guide-book,
speaking silently on every hand.

* * * * *

It might have been something like three years after this date that the
Buffalo Express was behind time one day. Pliny Hastings was at the depot
in a state of impatient waiting. I do not know that it occurred to him
that he had been in precisely that spot and condition one evening years
ago. The whistle of the train rang out at last, and Pliny stepped back
near the restive horses, ready for emergencies. He swung open the
carriage door as Theodore Mallery advanced from the train.

"You're a pretty man to be late _to-day_ of all days in the world," was
Pliny's greeting, in a sort of good-humoredly impatient tone.

"Scold the engineer, not me," responded Theodore, in the same manner. "I
fretted inwardly all the way from C----. All well at home?"

And then the two gentlemen entered the carriage, Theodore waiting to
give the order, "Home, Jacob." And he had not a thought of the
ill-favored urchin who had once tumbled up on the driver's seat of a
carriage similar to this one, and peered down curiously at the boy Pliny
inside. He even did not remember that he made a resolution to become the
driver some day of a pair of horses like those behind which he was
luxuriously riding, so utterly do we grow away from our intentions and
ambitions.

The carriage swept around the fine old curve and stopped at the side
door of Hastings' Hall that was. The place had a familiar look, but the
present inmates disliked the old aristocratic sounding name, and in view
of the wide green lawn and the noble shade trees had named it simply
"Elm Lawn." Dinner was waiting for the master of the house, and it was a
birthday dinner, too, in honor of the first anniversary of that great
day to another heir of the grand old house. He was sleepi