worked are almost
unimaginable even when the newspapers describe them with the
greatest minuteness.

"This letter is very rambling, I know, but I am writing as
rapidly as I can, for I want to send it to you before you
take the train. Please come to see me to-morrow. To-night I
sing in the song service at the church. I hope you will be
there. The more I think about your story the more eager to
listen I become. There must be some basis of stirring deeds
for all the tales they tell of you. My friends say I have a
touch of the literary poison in my veins; anyhow I like a
story above all things, and to hear the hero tell his own
adventures will be the keenest delight.

"I am sorry I could not do more to make things easier for you
to-day, but I come of men and women who are silent when they
mean most. I am never facile of speech and to-day I was
dumb. Perhaps if we meet on a clear understanding we will get
along better. Come, anyhow, and let me know you as you
are. Perhaps I have never really known you, perhaps I only
imagined you.

"Your friend,
"MARY YARDWELL.

"P.S. The reason for the postscript is that I have re-read
the foregoing letter and find it unsatisfactory in everything
except the expression of my wish to see you. I had meant to
say so much and I have said so little. I am afraid now that I
shall not see you at all, so I add my promise. I shall always
remember you and I _will_ think of you when I sing, and I
will sing If I Were a Voice every Sunday for you, especially
when I am all alone, and I'll send it out to you by thought
waves. You shall never fail of the best wishes of

"MARY YARDWELL."

Not being trained in psychologic subtleties, Harold took this letter to
mean only what it said. He was not as profoundly moved by it as he would
have been could he have read beneath the lines the tumult he had
produced in the tranquil life of its writer. One skilled in perception
of a woman's moods could have detected a sense of weakness, or
irresolution, or longing in a girl whose nature had not yet been tried
by conflicting emotions.

Jack perceived something of this when Harold gave him the letter to
read. His admiration of Harold's grace and power, his love for every
gest