. I loved a woman once
and she loved me. And we love each other still. Do you think I could
bear life else? I've an interest in it that the Bayside folk know
nothing of. It has kept youth in my heart and joy in my soul through
long, lonely years. And it's not ended yet, Master--it's not ended
yet! Some day I hope to bring a wife here to my old house--my wife, my
rose of joy!"

He was silent for a space, gazing at the stars. I too kept silence,
fearing to intrude into the holy places of his thought, although I was
tingling with interest in this unsuspected outflowering of romance in
Uncle Dick's life.

After a time he said gently,

"Shall I tell you about it, Master? I mean, do you care to know?"

"Yes," I answered, "I do care to know. And I shall respect your
confidence, Uncle Dick."

"I know that. I couldn't tell you, otherwise," he said. "I don't want
the Bayside folk to know--it would be a kind of desecration. They
would laugh and joke me about it, as they tease other people, and I
couldn't bear that. Nobody in Bayside knows or suspects, unless it's
old Joe Hammond at the post office. And he has kept my secret, or what
he knows of it, well. But somehow I feel that I'd like to tell you,
Master.

"Twenty-five years ago I loved Rose Lawrence. The Lawrences lived
where you are boarding now. There was just the father, a sickly man,
and Rose, my "Rose of joy," as I called her, for I knew my Emerson
pretty well even then. She was sweet and fair, like a white rose with
just a hint of pink in its cup. We loved each other, but we couldn't
marry then. My mother was an invalid, and one time, before I had
learned to care for Rose, she, the mother, had asked me to promise
her that I'd never marry as long as she lived. She didn't think then
that she would live long, but she lived for twenty years, Master, and
she held me to my promise all the time. Yes, it was hard"--for I had
given an indignant exclamation--"but you see, Master, I had promised
and I had to keep my word. Rose said I was right in doing it. She said
she was willing to wait for me, but she didn't know, poor girl, how
long the waiting was to be. Then her father's health failed
completely, and the doctor ordered him to another climate. They went
to California. That was a hard parting, Master. But we promised each
other that we would be true, and we have been. I've never seen my Rose
of joy since then, but I've had a letter from her every week. When the
mother d