d the struggle had left her passive and
unresisting; she was waiting. The outward result was a strange, new
gentleness of manner.

At the time of the Loan Exhibit she had been commissioned by a friend
to purchase a wedding gift, which was to be, if possible, something
antique. The silver candlesticks belonging to Mr. Clark rather pleased
her; and thinking he might have other interesting things, she had
written his address in her note-book, intending to go and see for
herself, but her illness had interfered. When she was once more able to
be out this was her first thought.

In the meantime the March _Journal_ was being read by a good many
persons who ordinarily never looked at it. The household at the
Spectacle Man's naturally took a deep interest in it; and Miss Sherwin
said she felt she ought to divide the profits, for if it had not been
for the song and Mrs. Morrison's suggestion, the story would never have
been written.

Frances laid emphatic commands upon her father to buy a copy the minute
he landed in San Francisco; and Mr. Clark was also charged to remind
Mark of the story, when he wrote.

In the hurry of sending telegrams, attending to his baggage, and making
arrangements for an early start eastward, Mr. Morrison forgot this
important matter, and it did not occur to him till, halfway on his
homeward journey, he one morning saw the paper among others the train
boy was carrying through the cars. He promptly purchased it, for it
would never do to meet his little daughter without having read the story
which was, she said, almost as good as one of his own.

Soon after leaving San Francisco, Mr. Morrison had made the acquaintance
of a young civil engineer who was on his way to his home in Tennessee
for a visit. He had frank, gentlemanly manners, and the cheerful,
self-reliant air of a trained worker who loves his work, and the
travellers were at once attracted to each other. As so often happens,
they discovered mutual friends, and also that they had the same
affection for Southern life and ways. Alexander Carter, as he gave his
name, had recently accepted a position with a Western mining company,--a
place of trust and responsibility of which he was justly proud in a
modest way.

"You seem to have found something amusing," he remarked, seeing Mr.
Morrison smiling over the magazine.

"Well, no, it happens to be a rather serious story, but something
reminded me of my little daughter," was the reply. "By the way,