own courage. The more she thought of the
matter the more she convinced herself that Reuben's love was one of
compassion rather than true affection. He had almost ceased his
attentions in her mother's lifetime, and had been very reserved in
his intercourse of late. Doubtless if he heard of her father's
ruin, generosity would make him strive to do all that he could for
her in her changed circumstances. It would be like him then to step
forward and avow himself ready to marry her. But it was out of the
question for her to consent. She wished the matter settled and done
with; she wished the irrevocable words spoken.

And yet when at dusk one evening Reuben suddenly stood before her,
she felt her heart beating to suffocation, and wished that she had
any reasonable excuse for fleeing from him.

His visits to the house were not frequent; he was too busy to make
them so. But from time to time he brought orphaned children to the
home of shelter, or took away from it some of those for whom other
homes had been found with their kinsfolk in other places. Tonight
he had brought in three little destitute orphans; but having given
them over into the care of his sisters, he went in search of
Gertrude, who was with the youngest of the children in a separate
room, and, having sung them all to sleep, was sitting in the window
thinking her own thoughts.

She knew what was coming when she saw Reuben's face, and braced
herself to meet it. Reuben was very quiet and self-restrained--so
self-restrained that she thought she read in his manner an
indication that her suspicion was correct, and that it was pity
rather than love which prompted his proposal of marriage.

As a matter of fact Reuben was more in love with Gertrude now than
he had ever been in his life before; but he had come to look upon
her as a being so far above him in every respect that he sometimes
marvelled at himself for ever hoping to win her. The fact that her
father was just now a ruined man seemed to him as nothing. At a
time like this the presence or absence of this world's goods
appeared absolutely trivial. Reuben believed that the Master
Builder would retrieve his fortune in better times without
difficulty, and regarded this temporary reverse as absolutely
insignificant. Therefore he had no clue to Gertrude's motive in her
rejection of him, and accepted it almost in silence, feeling that
it was what he always ought to have looked for, and marvelling at
his temerity i