" he said. "You are a student, too. Mrs. Taylor has told me,
but I should have guessed it. Duties even more interesting claim you
now, but it is easy to perceive that you have known that other
happiness, 'To scorn delights and live laborious days.'"

His words sounded musical, though the quotation from Lycidas was
unfamiliar to her ears. Her brain was thrilling with the import of all
he had told her--with his allusions to the intellectual and ethical
movements of Boston and New York, in which she felt herself by right and
with his recognition a partner and peer.

"You were teaching school when you married, I believe?" he added.

"Yes."

"And before that, if I may ask?"

"I lived at Westfield with my father. It is a small country town, but we
tried to be in earnest."

"I understand--I understand. You grew up among the trees, and the
breezes and the brooks, those wonderful wordless teachers. I envy you,
for they give one time to think--to expand. I have known only city life
myself. It is stimulating, but one is so easily turned aside from one's
direct purpose. Do you write at all?"

"Not yet. But I have wished to. Some day I shall. Just now I have too
many domestic concerns to--"

She did not finish, for Babcock's heavy tread and whistle resounded in
the hall and at the next moment he was calling "Selma!"

She felt annoyed at being interrupted, but she divined that it would
never do to show it.

"My husband," she said, and she raised her voice to utter with a sugared
dignity which would have done credit to Mrs. Taylor,

"I am in the parlor, Lewis."

"Enter your chief domestic concern," said Littleton blithely. "A happy
home is preferable to all the poems and novels in the world."

Babcock, pushing open the door, which stood ajar, stopped short in his
melody.

"This is Mr. Littleton, Lewis. The architect of our new church."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." And by way of accounting for the
sudden softening of his brow, Babcock added, "I set you down at first as
one of those lightning-rod agents. There was one here last week who
wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."

"He has an advantage over me," answered Littleton with a laugh. "In my
business a man can't solicit orders. He has to sit and wait for them to
come to him."

"I want to know. My wife thinks a lot of your drawings for the new
church."

"I hope to make it a credit to your city. I've just been saying to your
wife, Mr. Babcock, that Benham