invalid and his wife good-bye and passed
out into the shaded thoroughfare. A man stared at them, but a woman
passed with merely a glance.

[Illustration: the butter churn]

"Even in a village a wonder wears away after awhile," said Lyman.
"Yes," she laughed, "our strange relationship has almost ceased to be
an oddity."

They turned into a lane. He helped her across a rivulet and felt her
hand grow warm in his grasp. She looked up at him and his blood
tingled. He felt a sense of gladness and then remembered that she had
praised his book. It was a victory to know that it had broken through
her father's hauberk of prejudice. He spoke of Sawyer. She had heard
of his narrow escape from drowning; indeed, he had called at the
house.

"He did not hesitate to acknowledge everything," she said, "and I
never liked him half so well as I did today."

"But you couldn't like him well enough to marry him," Lyman was weak
enough to say.

"Oh, no; I liked him because he acknowledged your generosity," she
frankly confessed. Lyman had weaknesses, and one of them was an
under-appraisal of self. At times and in some men this is a virtue,
but more often it is a crime committed against one's own chance of
prosperity. The people's candidate is the man who loudest avows his
fitness for the office.

"You remember last Sunday as you were driving away from the church--"
he said.

"Yes--" she answered, walking close beside him.

"I thought I saw your mother reprimand you for urging her to stay."

"Yes. She was half inclined to yield and she was really scolding
herself for her weakness."

"You went away without congratulating the preacher."

"That was thoughtless. We have sent him a letter of congratulation."

"How stately your house looks from here; how cool and restful."

"I used to take great pride in the fact that I lived there, as I
looked at the humbler homes scattered about, but I haven't been so
foolishly proud since I came to know you."

"Then that is where we must have fallen apart. I have been prouder
since I knew you."

"I said foolishly proud," she replied, laughing.

They came to the wooden bridge. "Well, I turn back here," he said,
halting and leaning against the rail.

"Surely there would be no harm in your coming to the house," she
replied. "You are my protector," she added, with a smile. He was
beginning to dislike the word, and now he felt a heaviness settle upon
his heart.

"When your father has invited