lieved in the possibility of it, and the belief gave her a
curious delight. When she returned to the house for her scanty,
elegantly served dinner with the three elder ladies, her eyes would
be misty with these fancies and her mouth would wear the inscrutable
smile of a baby's at the charm of them.

When she first came to East Westland she was a profound mystery to
Horace, who had only known well two distinct types of girls--the
purely provincial and her reverse. Rose, with her mixture of the two,
puzzled him. While she was not in the least shy, she had a reserve
which caused her to remain a secret to him for some time. Rose's
inner life was to her something sacred, not to be lightly revealed.
At last, through occasional remarks and opinions, light began to
shine through. He had begun to understand her the Sunday he had
followed her to Lucy Ayres's. He had, also, more than begun to love
her. Horace Allen would not have loved her so soon had she been more
visible as to her inner self. Things on the surface rarely interested
him very much. He had not an easily aroused temperament, and a veil
which stimulated his imagination and aroused his searching instinct
was really essential if he were to fall in love. He had fallen in
love before, he had supposed, although he had never asked one of the
fair ones to marry him. Now he began to call up various faces and
wonder if this were not the first time. All the faces seemed to dim
before this present one. He realized something in her very dear and
precious, and for the first time he felt as if he could not forego
possession. Hitherto it had been easy enough to bear the slight
wrench of leaving temptation and moving his tent. Here it was
different. Still, the old objection remained. How could he marry upon
his slight salary?

The high-school in East Westland was an endowed institution. The
principal received twelve hundred a year. People in the village
considered that a prodigious income. Horace, of course, knew better.
He did not think that sum sufficient to risk matrimony. Here, too, he
was hampered by another consideration. It was intolerable for him to
think of Rose's wealth and his paltry twelve hundred per year. An
ambition which had always slumbered within his mind awoke to full
strength and activity. He began to sit up late at night and write
articles for the papers and magazines. He had got one accepted, and
received a check which to his inexperience seemed promisingly l