as to come finally to believe that he was something which he
was not. Thus, now he was beginning to accept this situation as Angela
and Marietta wished he should, and to see her in somewhat the old light.
He overlooked things which in his New York studio, surrounded by the
influences which there modified his judgment, he would have seen. Angela
was not young enough for him. She was not liberal in her views. She was
charming, no doubt of that, but he could not bring her to an
understanding of his casual acceptance of life. She knew nothing of his
real disposition and he did not tell her. He played the part of a
seemingly single-minded Romeo, and as such he was from a woman's point
of view beautiful to contemplate. In his own mind he was coming to see
that he was fickle but he still did not want to admit it to himself.

There was a night of stars after an evening of June perfection. At five
old Jotham came in from the fields, as dignified and patriarchal as
ever. He greeted Eugene with a hearty handshake, for he admired him. "I
see some of your work now and then," he said, "in these monthly
magazines. It's fine. There's a young minister down here near the lake
that's very anxious to meet you. He likes to get hold of anything you
do, and I always send the books down as soon as Angela gets through with
them."

He used the words books and magazines interchangeably, and spoke as
though they were not much more important to him than the leaves of the
trees, as indeed, they were not. To a mind used to contemplating the
succession of crops and seasons, all life with its multitudinous
interplay of shapes and forms seemed passing shadows. Even men were like
leaves that fall.

Eugene was drawn to old Jotham as a filing to a magnet. His was just the
type of mind that appealed to him, and Angela gained by the radiated
glory of her father. If he was so wonderful she must be something above
the average of womanhood. Such a man could not help but produce
exceptional children.

Left alone together it was hardly possible for Angela and Eugene not to
renew the old relationship on the old basis. Having gone as far as he
had the first time it was natural that he should wish to go as far again
and further. After dinner, when she turned to him from her room, arrayed
in a soft evening dress of clinging texture--somewhat low in the neck by
request of Marietta, who had helped her to dress--Eugene was conscious
of her emotional perturbation. H