er gaze
was fixed and meditative, as though she had been studying him. She
started and blushed when he turned and caught her, looking down in
sudden and complete confusion. But she looked up again instantly,
meeting his gaze steadily, her lips in a frank smile.

"You have been thinking of this country," she said.

"You have guessed it," he returned gravely and gently; "I have been
thinking of this country--and its people." He smiled at her, his eyes
shining with a light that caused hers to waver and droop. "But how did
you discover that?" he questioned. "I was not aware that I had been
speaking my thoughts."

"Do you think it is always necessary to speak?" she answered, looking at
him with a quiet smile. "Don't you think there are times when one's
thoughts find expression in one's eyes? When we can not conceal them--no
matter how hard we try? I know that you were thinking of the country,"
she went on earnestly, "because a few moments ago I had been thinking of
it too and I know that my emotions were exactly the same as those
expressed in your eyes. It is magnificent, isn't it?" she said in an
awed, eager voice. "It is so big, so mighty, so soul-stirring. It
allures with its vastness, it dazzles with its beauty; it makes one feel
closer to the Creator, even while pressing home a disquieting sense of
one's own insignificance.

"For instance," she went on, her eyes large and luminous, a new, quiet
color coming into her face "there are times when our tasks seem
stupendous, when we are filled with an overpowering consciousness of the
importance of them; when we feel that we are carrying such a burden that
the addition of another would make the load too heavy. Then we look upon
God's work and immediately a still, small voice within us cries: 'What
have ye done in comparison to this?' And what have we done?" she
suddenly demanded.

"Nothing," he returned gravely, awed by this fleeting illuminating
glimpse into her soul.

She leaned back into her chair with a smile. "Those were the things I
was thinking about. And you, too, were thinking of them," she added.
"Now, don't deny it!" she warned, "for I saw it in your eyes!"

"No!" he said with a quick smile; "I don't deny it. But I was thinking
of the people also."

"Oh, the people!" she said with a frown.

"Perhaps I should have said 'person,'" he modified with a quick glance
at her, under which her eyes drooped in swift confusion--as they had
drooped on another occasi