his toe into
the pattern of the ingrain carpet, "to come home alive and whole when so
many poor fellows had to give their lives. I've often wondered how I
happened to get through."

She looked at him tenderly:

"Perhaps your Heavenly Father brought you back to give you more chance
to do things for Him, an' get ready to die when your time comes."

There was something startling to this self-composed city chap in hearing
a thing like this from the lips of the mother whose beloved son was gone
forever beyond her teaching but had "been ready." Reyburn looked at her
steadily, soberly, and then with a queer constriction in his throat he
looked down at the floor thoughtfully and said:

"Perhaps He did."

"Well, I can't help bein' glad you're a church member, anyhow," said
Mrs. Carson, rising to look out of the window. "She needs a Christian to
help her, an' I'd sooner trust a Christian. If you really meant it when
you joined church you've got somethin' to fall back on anyhow. Here she
comes. I'll just go an' tell her you're in here."

CHAPTER XIII

BETTY, her eyes wide with fear, her face white as a lily, appeared like
a wraith at the parlor door and looked at him. It gave Reyburn a queer
sensation, as if a picture one had been looking at in a story book
should suddenly become alive and move and stare at one. As he rose and
came forward he still seemed to see like a dissolving view between them
the little huddled bride on the floor of the church. Then he suddenly
realized that she was trembling.

"Please don't be afraid of me, Miss Stanhope," he said gently. "I have
only come to help you, and if after you have talked with me you feel
that you would rather I should have nothing to do with your affairs I
will go away and no one in the world shall be the wiser for it. I give
you my word of honor."

"Oh!" said Betty, toppling into a chair near by. "I--guess--I'm not
afraid of you. I just didn't know who you might be----!" She stopped,
caught her breath and tried to laugh, but it ended sorrily, almost in a
sob.

"Well, I don't wonder," said Reyburn, trying to find something
reassuring to say. "The truth is, I was rather upset about you. I
didn't quite know who you might turn out to be, you see!"

"Oh!" Betty's hand slipped up to her throat, and her lips quivered as
she tried to smile.

"Please don't feel that way," he said, "or I'll go away at once." He was
summoning all his courage and hoping she wasn't goin