m."

"Indeed I will, Mrs. Douglas. I can't tell you how much I owe to Walter.
He is like a brother to me."

The minute he uttered the words he caught himself up and half turned,
blushing furiously, towards Helen. But she had already started to go out
of the library and Bauer was not sure that she had heard him or paid any
attention.

Mrs. Douglas, however, had seen his face and his half startled look and
deepening colour, and her own face grew grave. It did not seem possible
to her that anything serious could happen to the quiet German student
during his brief stay with the family. And yet, she was a wise and
observant woman who did not at all blind herself to the fact that her
daughter had natural gifts of physical and mental attractions, which
young men like Bauer inevitably feel. And it needed only this one
glimpse of Bauer's face to reveal to her quick mother's sense the fact
that Helen had attracted him, how far or how deeply for the loss of his
own peace, of course she could not tell.

It was partly on that account that Mrs. Douglas welcomed Helen's
confidence when, that same afternoon, the girl came into her mother's
room and after a few moments of nervous, restless and aimless talk came
and sat down on a low chair near Mrs. Douglas and said, "Mother, I want
a plain talk."

"A plain talk" in the Douglas family meant heart secrets, and Mrs.
Douglas knew at once what Helen wanted.

"Hide nothing," said Esther, smiling, and patting Helen's head
cheerfully.

"Hide nothing," repeated Helen, with a faint smile; which meant that the
utmost frankness was going to be shown on both sides.

"Mother," said Helen, after a pause of some length during which her
mother calmly went on with her sewing. "How old were you when you were
married?"

"Not quite twenty-two."

"And how old was father?"

"Twenty-six. Almost twenty-seven."

"Were you very much in love with him?"

Esther let her work fall from her hands into her lap, and looked out
across the room over her daughter's head. The passing of the years had
not dimmed the love light in Esther's eyes nor faded the glow of the
love look on her face.

"I can't tell you how much I was in love with him. He was the whole
world to me."

"More than your own father and mother?"

"Yes, more."

"More and different?"

"Yes, more and different."

There was another pause and Helen put her hand up to her mother's. The
girl had not yet looked up. Her eyes were cast dow