riously
because there has been no occasion."

Huntington was relieved by her words but her ideas were not reassuring.
He started to tell her that she was entirely wrong, but he checked
himself because he realized that differing with people had now come to
be a habit with him. Two days before he had carefully explained to
Hamlen how erroneous his convictions were only to discover that he
himself had been in error. Yesterday he had differed with Mrs. Thatcher,
and now he found his ideas at variance with Merry's. Instead, he lifted
the girl's left hand, which rested on the grass beside him, and gently
pointing to the third finger he looked earnestly into her deep eyes.

"Merry," he said calling her by her name for the first time, "when the
moment comes for some man to slip a gold band on there I want you to
remember what I tell you now. You have pictured me as an apostle of
optimism and as the happiest person you know. I could tell you something
about that, but instead I'll try to live up to your picture. But this
much is gospel truth, and I want you to remember it: that gold band will
stand as a symbol and the circle means completeness. It doesn't stand
for sacrifice, or for supreme tests, or for anything of that sort,--it
does stand for just what you saw in your 'vision.' A very wise person
once said that marriage was either a complete union or a complete
isolation, and he was right. My friends think me a cynic on this
subject, but my cynicism is a result of the complete isolation I see
every day in the lives of my friends. I want your marriage to be a
complete union, little girl, and that can't come if you apply your
present ideas to a sacrament so sacred that every-day principles become
meaningless. Marriage is the merging of all that is beautiful in two
lives, and unless the love on each side strives to outdo the other in
contributing to the joint account, the beauty fades, and the gold
circlet stands as a symbol of slavery instead of representing the most
wonderful relation which mortals are permitted to enjoy."

"Mr. Huntington!" she exclaimed in a low tone, "I had no idea you looked
upon marriage like that! I didn't believe any man did! It makes me have
more faith in my vision. Still, after all, that doesn't change the fact
itself, for you are the exception. But, feeling as you do, I know now
that the only reason you are not married is that you have never found
the girl."

Huntington looked full into her face b