ould, and hear the Ashurst news, and have a cup
of tea with the preacher and his wife.

John and Helen often walked home with him, though his rooms were quite at
the other end of the town, near the river and the mills; and one night,
as they stood on the shaking bridge, and looked down at the brown water
rushing and plunging against the rotten wooden piers, Helen began to ask
him about Mr. Forsythe.

"Tell me about him," she said. "You have seen him since he left college.
I only just remember him in Ashurst, though I recall Mrs. Forsythe
perfectly: a tall, sick-looking lady, with an amiably melancholy face,
and three puffs of hair on each side of it."

"Except that the puffs are white now, she is just the same," Gifford
answered. "As for her son, I don't know anything about him. I believe we
were not very good friends when we were boys, but now--well, he has the
manners of a gentleman."

"Doesn't that go without saying?" said Helen, laughing. "From the letters
I've had, I fancy he is a good deal at the rectory."

"Yes," Gifford admitted. "But he is one of those people who make you feel
that though they may have good manners, their grandfathers did not, don't
you know?"

"But what difference does that make," John asked, "if he is a good man?"

"Oh, of course, no difference," Gifford replied with an impatient laugh.

"But what is the attraction in Ashurst, Giff?" Helen said. "How can he
stay there all summer? I should not think he could leave his business."

"Oh, he is rich."

"Why, you don't like him!" said Helen, surprised at his tone.

"I don't know anything about the fellow," the young man answered. "I
haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion one way or the other.
Judging from aunt Ruth's letters, though, I should say Lois liked him, so
I don't think he will be anxious for my approval, or anybody else's."

Helen looked at him with sudden questioning in her eyes, but they had
reached his house, and John began to speak to him of his plans and of
Lockhaven.

"I'm afraid you will have only too much to do," he said. "There
is a great deal of quarreling among the mill-owners, and constant
disagreements between the hands."

"Well," Gifford answered, smiling, and straightening his broad shoulders,
"if there is work to do, I am glad I am here to do it. But I'm not
hopeless for the life it indicates, when you say there's much to be done.
The struggle for personal rights and advantages is really, you know, t