sight or sound of him for months at a time. God give
me strength to bear it. If I live to see him on the altar, I shall thank
God and die...."

Twenty years she had served him, yet here came the inevitable end, as if
such love had never been.

"Oh, you people of faith! I believe you never suffer, nor know what
suffering is!"

"Not your kind of suffering, surely, or we would die. Our hope is always
with us, and fortunately does not depend on our moods for its power."

Mona teased him into good humor. That was a great moment when in
presence of the family the lad put on the dress of the seminary,
Arthur's gift. Feeling like a prince who clothes his favorite knight in
his new armor, Arthur helped him to don the black cassock, tied the
ribbons of the surplice, and fixed the three-cornered cap properly on
the brown, curly head. A pallor spread over the mother's face. Mona
talked much to keep back her tears, and the father declared it a shame
to make a priest of so fine a fellow, since there were too many priests
in the world for its good. The boy walked about as proud as a young
soldier dressed for his first parade. The Trumps, enraptured at the
sight, clapped their hands with joy.

"Why, he's a priest," cried Constance, with a twist of her pretty mouth.
"Louis is a priest."

"No, Baby," corrected Marguerite, the little mother, "but he is going to
be one sometime."

The wonderful garments enchanted them, they feared to touch him, and
protested when he swung them high and kissed them on the return flight.
The boy's departure for the seminary stirred the region of Cherry Hill.
The old neighbors came and went in a steady procession for two days to
take their leave of him, to bless his parents, and to wish them the joy
of seeing him one day at the altar as a priest of God. They bowed to him
with that reverence which belonged to Monsignor, only more familiar and
loquacious, and each brought his gift of respect or affection. Even the
Senator and the Boss appeared to say a parting word.

"I wish you luck, Louis," the Senator said in his resonant voice, and
with the speaker's chair before his eyes, "and I know you'll get it,
because you have deserved it, sir. I've seen you grow up, and I've
always been proud to know you, and I want to know you as long as I live.
If ever you should need a hand like mine in the ga ... I mean, if ever
my assistance is of any use to you, you know where to call."

"You have a hard road to tra