, Miss
Rice, directly the service was at an end. "I'm just _dying_ to hear all
about it!" she exclaimed, with a fond pressure of the arm linked within
her own--this after the two ladies had extricated themselves from the
circle of curious and critical faces at the church door.

Miss Philura surveyed the speaker with meditative eyes; it seemed to her
that Miss Pratt was curiously altered since she had seen her last.

"_Have_ you had a fortune left you?" went on her inquisitor, blinking
enviously at the nodding plumes which shaded Miss Philura's blue eyes.
"Everybody _says_ you have; and that you are going to get married soon.
I'm sure you'll tell _me_ everything!"

Miss Philura hesitated for a moment. "I haven't exactly had money left
me," she began; then her eyes brightened. "I have all that I need," she
said, and straightened her small figure confidently.

"And _are_ you going to be married, dear?"

"Yes," said Miss Philura distinctly.

"Well, I _never_--Philura Rice!" almost screamed her companion. "Do tell
me _when_; and _who_ is it?"

"I can not tell you that--now," said Miss Philura simply. "He is in----"
She was about to add "the encircling Good," but she reflected that Miss
Pratt might fail to comprehend her. "I will introduce you to
him--later," she concluded with dignity.

To follow the fortunes of Miss Philura during the ensuing weeks were a
pleasant though monotonous task; the encircling Good proved itself
wholly adequate to the demands made upon it. Though there was little
money in the worn purse, there were numerous and pressing invitations
to tea, to dinner, and to spend the day, from hosts of friends who had
suddenly become warm, affectionate, and cordially appreciative; and not
even the new Methodist minister's wife could boast of such lavish
donations, in the shape of new-laid eggs, frosted cakes, delicate
biscuit, toothsome crullers and choice fruits as found their way to Miss
Philura's door.

* * * * *

The recipient of these manifold favors walked, as it were, upon air.
"For unto every one that hath shall be given," she read in the privacy
of her own shabby little parlor, "and he shall have abundance."

"Everything that I want is mine!" cried the little lady, bedewing the
pages of Holy Writ with happy tears. The thought of the lover and
husband who, it is true, yet lingered in the invisible, brought a
becoming blush to her cheek. "I shall see him soon," she