er all about you, but I said nothing
about the children."

"Why should you?" asked Letty, although her mind had leaped to the
reason already.

"Well, I was a poor patient in one of the cheapest rooms; broken in
health, without any present means of support. I wanted to stand well
with her, she had been so good to me, and I thought if she knew about
the twins she wouldn't believe I could ever make a living for three."

"Still less for _four_!" put in Letty, with an irrepressible note of
teasing in her tone.

She had broken the ice. Like a torrent set free, David dashed into the
story of the last two months and Ruth Bentley's wonderful influence.
How she had recreated him within as well as without. How she was the
best and noblest of women, willing to take a pauper by the hand and
brace him up for a new battle with life.

"Strength appeals to me," confessed David. "Perhaps it's because I am
weak; for I'm afraid I am, a little!"

"Be careful, Davy! Eva was strong!"

David shuddered. He remembered a strength that lashed and buffeted and
struck and overpowered.

"Ruth is different," he said. "'Out of the strong came forth
sweetness' used to be one of Parson Larrabee's texts. That's Ruth's
kind of strength.--Can I--will you let me bring her here to see you,
Letty,--say for New Year's? It's all so different from the last time I
asked you. Then I knew I was bringing you nothing but sorrow and pain,
but Ruth carries her welcome in her face."

The prop inside of Letty wavered unsteadily for a moment and then
stood in its accustomed upright position.

"Why not?" she asked. "It's the right thing to do; but you must tell
her about the children first."

"Oh! I did that long ago, after I found out that she cared. It was
only at first that I didn't dare. I haven't told you, but she went out
for her daily walk and brought me home a Christmas card, the prettiest
one she could find, she said. I was propped up on pillows, as weak as
a kitten. I looked at it and looked at it, and when I saw that it was
this room, the old fireplace and mother's picture, and the Hessian
soldier andirons, when I realized there was a face at the window and
that the door was ajar,--everything just swam before me and I fainted
dead away. I had a relapse, and when I was better again I told her
everything. She's fond of children. It didn't make any difference,
except for her to say that the more she had to do for me, the more she
wanted to do it."