had happened to disturb the friendly relations in which
he had from the first stood with regard to Miss Elizabeth he had long
felt, and he had never felt it more painfully than to-night. He could
scarcely make clear to himself the nature of the change that had come to
their intercourse, and he did not know the reason of it--or he had
hitherto told himself that he did not. There was nothing in his life,
nor in his plans and prospects, that had not been there before the
friendliness of Miss Holt had been given him. There was nothing to
which he looked forward in the future which could interfere to make her
friendship less precious to him--nothing which could be a sufficient
reason for its withdrawal on her part--nothing which could compensate
him for its loss.

And yet it was slipping from him, or rather that which had made it
pleasant to him as no other friendship had ever been, and useful as no
other friendship in Gershom could ever be, was missed by him, to his
great loss and discomfort. Miss Holt was kind and frank and friendly
still. He would have used those very words--indeed he had used them--in
describing their relations to each other soon after their first
acquaintance, but there was a difference which, though it did not touch
the kindness and the friendliness, made itself felt still.

Was the change in Miss Holt or in himself? or was it caused by
circumstances which neither of them could help? This was the point
which Mr Maxwell proposed to settle that night before he slept. He
must see this clearly, he said to himself, and then he might also see a
way to prevent the pain and loss which estrangement from his friend must
cause.

It would be useless to follow him through all the troubled thoughts and
anxious questionings of the night. Out of them all came first a doubt,
and then a certainty, painful and not unmixed with shame, that the
friendship he feared to lose was more to him than was the love that put
it in jeopardy. Nay, that he had for many a month been mistaking love
for friendship, and friendship for love.

There were more troubled thoughts and anxious questionings, and they
ended in the conviction that he had made a great mistake for which there
seemed no remedy. He must suffer, but he knew that with God's help he
would overcome. For a time he must submit to the loss of that society
which had been so much to him since he came to Gershom. By and by, when
he should be wiser and stronger, an