le.

"Hubert!" he repeated, "my dear boy!"

His voice choked on the last word. A certain strain of Scottish blood
forbade a warmer demonstration, but the two men's hand-clasp was
eloquent. Presently Mr. Gray asked Hubert to be seated and tell him
all about it, wondering much meanwhile at the change very often sighed
for but seldom expected.

Hubert told his story as directly as possible, but minus many details
of his heart struggle of which his reserved nature made it impossible
to speak. But, bare of all embellishment, the story gave great joy to
his father. His own example as a Christian had not been a brilliant
one. His principles were just, as men count equity, and his life
irreproachable by their standards. But the business man seemed often
to hold the ascendency over the disciple of Jesus Christ, and Hubert
had sometimes wondered cynically wherein his father differed from
himself except in his attendance upon outward religious forms. But the
spark of life, dull and smoldering, answered to the breath of Hubert's
good news of salvation, and he was unfeignedly glad.

They started together for the dining-room when the bell rang, but met
Winifred in the hall. She had just come in from the garden, clad in
rain-coat and cap, roses glowing in her cheeks from the keen, damp air,
and a big bouquet of flame-colored flowers in her hands.

"We shall have sunshine without the sun," she cried to Hubert. "These
flowers have caught his color."

"That is a parable," he answered quickly.

"Expound it please," she said.

Mr. Gray went on into the dining-room, and Hubert explained to Winifred
her mystic text.

"These flowers," he said, "give indisputable evidence of the sun's
existence, even though we cannot see it. They could not have their
color without it. There is a sweet soul in this house who caught the
beams of the Sun before I quite knew that He was, and she testified of
Him, reflecting His glory when I was in great darkness. It helped me
to suppose that He existed and to try to find out for myself."

Winifred looked deeply in Hubert's dark eyes and saw the hunger gone
from them. He smiled on her.

"Hubert," she said, "have you found Him?"

"Yes," he said.

Her flowers fell to the floor. She threw her arms about his neck with
a sob of joy.

"Oh, Hubert, I am so glad!" she cried. "I prayed--" and her voice
broke.

Breakfast waited in the dining-room, but Mr. Gray improved the time by
trying t