hink maybe there isn't such a thing as a 'finish,' after
all! You say perhaps we don't learn to live till we die but maybe that's
how it is AFTER we die, too--just learning some more, the way we do
here, and maybe through trouble again, even after that."

"Oh, it might be," he sighed. "I expect so."

"Well, then," she said, "what's the use of talking about a 'finish?' We
do keep looking ahead to things as if they'd finish something, but when
we get TO them, they don't finish anything. They're just part of going
on. I'll tell you--I looked ahead all summer to something I was afraid
of, and I said to myself, 'Well, if that happens, I'm finished!' But it
wasn't so, papa. It did happen, and nothing's finished; I'm going on,
just the same only----" She stopped and blushed.

"Only what?" he asked.

"Well----" She blushed more deeply, then jumped up, and, standing before
him, caught both his hands in hers. "Well, don't you think, since we do
have to go on, we ought at least to have learned some sense about how to
do it?"

He looked up at her adoringly.

"What _I_ think," he said, and his voice trembled;--"I think you're
the smartest girl in the world! I wouldn't trade you for the whole
kit-and-boodle of 'em!"

But as this folly of his threatened to make her tearful, she kissed him
hastily, and went forth upon her errand.

Since the night of the tragic-comic dinner she had not seen Russell, nor
caught even the remotest chance glimpse of him; and it was curious that
she should encounter him as she went upon such an errand as now engaged
her. At a corner, not far from that tobacconist's shop she had just left
when he overtook her and walked with her for the first time, she met him
to-day. He turned the corner, coming toward her, and they were face to
face; whereupon that engaging face of Russell's was instantly reddened,
but Alice's remained serene.

She stopped short, though; and so did he; then she smiled brightly as
she put out her hand.

"Why, Mr. Russell!"

"I'm so--I'm so glad to have this--this chance," he stammered. "I've
wanted to tell you--it's just that going into a new undertaking--this
business life--one doesn't get to do a great many things he'd like to. I
hope you'll let me call again some time, if I can."

"Yes, do!" she said, cordially, and then, with a quick nod, went briskly
on.

She breathed more rapidly, but knew that he could not have detected it,
and she took some pride in herself for the w