me. My resignation wasn't
accepted, and I would perhaps have gone on for another year at Overton,
but--" Grace paused, her fine face grew tender. "Tom came back," she
continued, a faint tremor in her even tones, "and so I gladly gave up my
work for love. That's the whole story. I never expected to tell it to
any one. Somehow it has always been sacred to me. I couldn't bear to
talk of it, even to Mother."

"It's a wonderful story. When I asked you about giving up work for love,
I never dreamed that you had gone through with any such struggle. I feel
as though I've intruded on very private property. But just knowing about
it _has_ comforted me." Arline raised her head from Grace's knee with
sudden energy. "It's this way, Grace. I have almost decided to break my
engagement."

"Why, Arline Thayer!" Amazement was written on Grace's features. "I am
sorry to hear that. Until to-night I had thought of you as being
absolutely happy."

"I'm not. I'm dreadfully unhappy." Arline drew a quick, almost sobbing
breath. "You've never met Stanley Forde, my fiance, so you don't know
how handsome he is and how nice he can be--if he chooses. But he's
turning out a--a--well, a kind of tyrant. He doesn't like me to do
settlement work. I've always thought he wasn't very highly pleased over
it, but he never said a word until the other night. Even then he didn't
say much. But, as Elfreda says, 'I can see' that if I marry him he's
going to say more about it afterward. Then we'll quarrel and that would
be dreadful. I could never endure it. You know how I hate quarrels. At
college I never had anything to say to or do with the girls who were
trouble-makers. What am I to do, Grace? Break my engagement while there
is still time or--or--" Arline subsided with a little sob.

"Poor Daffydowndilly." Bending, Grace wound her arms about the dainty,
child-like figure. "It's a hard problem--hard because I suppose you must
care a great deal for him."

"I think I must love him, or I wouldn't wish to marry him," came the
muffled reply. "Still I won't give up my work. Those poor settlement
children need me. He can't understand that. He knows nothing of what it
means to be terribly poor. He doesn't like the idea of my coming into
such close contact with them. It doesn't hurt me and it helps them,"
ended Arline piteously.

"One who knows you well should understand that you are doing worthy
work," returned Grace gravely. "Still if I were you I would not act t