she said talking still to herself. She had come
quite away from the meeting, and was down in one of the rustic seats by
the lake side. It struck her as very strange that she had not intimate
acquaintance with a single Christian. She even traveled home and tried
to imagine herself in conversation on this subject with some of her
friends. To whom could she go? Mr. Wayne? Why, he wouldn't understand
her in the least. What a strange letter that was which she wrote him!
Could it be possible that it was written only yesterday? How strange
that she should have suggested to him to unite with the church! How
strange that she should have thought of it herself!

There came a quick step behind her, and a voice said, "Good-evening,
Miss Erskine." She turned and tried to recall the name that belonged to
the face of the young man before her.

"You do not remember me?" he said, inquiringly. "I was of the party who
went to Jamestown on the excursion."

"Oh, Mr. Flint," she said, smiling, and holding out her hand. "I beg
pardon for forgetting; that seems about a month ago."

"So it does to me; we live fast here. Miss Erskine, I have been looking
for your party; I couldn't find them. Isn't Miss Shipley in your tent?
Yes, I thought so. Well, I want to see her very much. I have something
to tell her that I know will give her pleasure. Perhaps you would take a
message for me. I want her to know that since last week, when she told
me of her Friend who had become so dear to her, I have found the truth
of it. He is my Friend now, and I want to thank her for so impressing me
with a desire to know him that I could not give it up."

Ruth looked utterly puzzled. Something in the young man's reverent tone,
when he used the word "Friend," suggested that he could mean only the
Friend for whom she herself was in looking; and yet--Flossy Shipley!
What had _she_ to do with him?

"Do you mean," she said, hesitatingly, and yet eagerly, for if he indeed
meant that here was one for whom she had been looking; "do you mean that
you have become a Christian?"

"It is such a new experience," he said, his face flushing, "that I have
hardly dared to call myself by that name; but if to be a Christian means
to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have given one's self, body and
soul, to his service, why then I am assuredly a Christian."

This was it. There was no time to be lost. She had spent one night of
horror, she could not endure another, and the day was d