loping rapidly, and showed
distinct comeliness. As he walked after her he noticed her figure. It
was still very slender, but it had roundnesses that would soon become
rounder, and graceful curves that would swell with an ampler grace
every month till she reached full growth. He was pleased when he
thought of the good food that she had received in return for her good
work. He thought, too, that he must tell Mavis to be watchful and
careful, a real guardian, when this childlike bud burst into
womanhood.

He felt a glow of indignation at the mere idea of harm coming to her
while she was under their care. Hands off, there. Any louts who
attempted tricks would have him, William Dale, to reckon with.

For years Dale had been a bad sleeper, but now he was a good sleeper;
and Mavis traced this change directly to the calming effect of his
religion. There could be no question that the improvement dated from
that night on which he was baptized. Since then he had not once been
troubled with bad dreams, and habitually he slept so soundly that he
required a lot of rousing in the morning. Another change, among those
slight differences that she fancied she observed in him, was his
abstraction when reading. Formerly he used to seem particularly alert
and vigorous whenever he sat with an open book before him; his whole
air was that of lively expectation; the features worked; he was
waiting for a passage that he did not agree with. Nowadays he seemed
to read in a completely receptive spirit, without questioning, without
doubting; and his face reflected the quiet confidence that he was
adopting with regard to the author. He never looked up, or stopped to
read out anything that struck him; he had withdrawn himself from
every-day life and given himself to the world of the book; you had to
speak two or three times, and quite loudly, before you could drag him
back to material facts.

Still another change, and one that affected them both, Mavis did not
altogether attribute to the revival of her husband's religious belief;
but she thought that this had accelerated its progress and confirmed
its finality. It had begun after the birth of her second child. Then
it was that the love between husband and wife purified itself still
further; and the refining process had continued; they had passed
onward and upward until the beautiful new feelings seemed firmly
established, and, without a word spoken, all the old passion had been
allowed to fade. It