pring and summer,
have halted as it did between his love for Sophia Rexford and his shame
concerning his brother's trade. With the end of June his school had
closed for the summer, but at that time the congregation at his little
church greatly increased; then, too, he had repairs in the college to
superintend, certain articles to write for a Church journal, interesting
pupils to correspond with--in a word, his energy, which sometimes by
necessity and sometimes by ambition had become regulated to too quick a
pace, would not now allow him to take leisure when it offered, or even
to perceive the opportunity. His mind, habituated to unrest, was
perpetually suggesting to him things needing to be done, and he always
saw a mirage of leisure in front of him, and went on the faster in order
to come up to it. By this mirage he constantly vowed to himself that
when the opportunity came he would take time to think out some things
which had grown indistinct to him. At present the discomfort and sorrow
of not feeling at liberty to make love to the woman he loved was some
excuse for avoiding thought, and he found distraction in hard work and
social engagements. With regard to Sophia he stayed his mind on the
belief that if he dared not woo she was not being wooed, either by any
man who was his rival, or by those luxuries and tranquillities of life
which nowadays often lure young women to prefer single blessedness.

In the meantime he felt he had done what he could by writing again and
again, and even telegraphing, to Turrifs Station. It is a great relief
to the modern mind to telegraph when impatient; but when there is
nothing at the other end of the wire but an operator who is under no
official obligation to deliver the message at an address many miles
distant, the action has only the utility already mentioned--the relief
it gives to the mind of the sender. The third week in August came, and
yet he had heard nothing more from Alec. Still, Alec had said he would
come in summer, and if the promise was kept he could not now be long,
and Robert clung to the hope that he would return with ambitions toward
some higher sphere of life, and in a better mind concerning the
advisability of not being too loquacious about his former trade.

In this hope he took opportunity one day about this time, when calling
on Mrs. Rexford, to mention that Alec was probably coming. He desired,
he said, to have the pleasure of introducing him to her.

"He is