though, and explain matters. You owe him that, at least."

"I will," sighed Arline. "There's just one thing more I have to say. I
shall _never, never_ fall in love again. It's fatal to one's peace of
mind. Now that I've fallen out of love, I feel about a hundred years
younger. I'm going to be a nice, kind, spinster and found a home for
poor children."

Grace smiled at this naive announcement. She was unselfishly glad that
Arline could thus lightly cast her burden from her dainty shoulders.
Perhaps she, too, would have known greater content, had love not entered
her heart. Yet in the same instant she put away the thought as unworthy
of herself. Come what might she was intensely sure that she had chosen
the better part.

CHAPTER XIII

AN INNOCENT MEDDLER

Arline Thayer had entered Grace's home life at a moment when the latter
most needed the inspiring companionship of an intimate friend. Quickly
recovering from her own woes, it was borne upon Arline that she must
exert herself to the utmost to cheer up the girl who had never failed
her. The blithsome joy of living which, formerly, Grace had seemed to
radiate had entirely disappeared. Although she went about the house,
feigning desperately to maintain a cheerful attitude, a subdued air of
wistfulness clung to her that filled Arline with a fierce resentment
against the circumstances that had risen so unexpectedly to rob Grace of
her happiness. She frequently wondered how it was possible for Grace to
keep up so bravely in the face of such crushing adversity. Given the
same sinister conditions, Arline admitted inwardly that she could never
have maintained the remarkable composure which Grace daily exhibited.

She was thinking of this when, on the afternoon of her third day's
sojourn with the Harlowes, the two young women had just left Haven Home
behind them, Grace having asked Arline to accompany her on one of her
frequent pilgrimages to her beautiful House Behind the World. Usually it
was Nora Wingate who went with her. Occasionally Mrs. Harlowe bore her
daughter company.

Grace never visited Haven Home empty-handed. Always she carried some new
treasure designed by herself or her friends to adorn the stately
habitation in which she felt sure that some day would indeed mean Haven
Home to herself and Tom. Before he had left her to make the journey that
had resulted in his complete disappearance, she had promised him that
the finishing labors at Haven Home sho