I'm not;
I'm a miserable impostor. She takes it for granted that I am good and
kind and wise."

"Aren't you?" asked Patty gravely.

"As men go. I always try to be kind; sometimes I am good, and
sometimes I am wise."

"I'm afraid you are one of those young men who try to be bad and
can't. They are hopeless."

Warrington laughed.

"But I am superstitious about that letter. I've carried it in my
pocket for weeks. It's a kind of mentor. Whenever some fool thing
comes into my head, I stop and think of the letter."

"That is good. The writer hasn't wasted her time."

"I love you!" whispered John.

Miss Challoner smiled into his eyes. The smile encouraged him, and he
raised her hand to his lips.

Ah, if it were not for those gloves! Why did he not say something? She
was positive that he had them. To smile and laugh and talk; to face
the altar, knowing that he possessed those hateful gloves! To pretend
to deceive when she knew that he was not deceived! It was maddening.
It was not possible that Warrington had the gloves; he would never
have kept them all this while. What meant this man at her side? What
was he going to do? She recollected a play in which there was a pair
of gloves. The man had thrown them at the woman's feet, and, at the
very altar, turned and left her. But she knew that men did not do such
things in life. She was innocent of any wrong; this knowledge
sustained her.

"A honeymoon in Switzerland: it has been the dream of my life." This
time he drew her arm through his and crossed the room to his mother's
side. "Mother mine, we shall be gone only three months; then we shall
come home to stay."

"I shall miss you so; you have been away so much that I am hardly
acquainted with you."

The woman who was to become her daughter suddenly dropped on her knees
beside the chair.

"Please love me, too. I have been so lonely all my life."

"My daughter!" Mrs. Bennington laid her hand on the splendid head.

"I shall never marry," said Patty decidedly.

"What? Young lady, don't let any one hear you make such a remark. One
of these fine days somebody will swoop you up and run off with you. I
don't know but that I could play the part fairly well." Warrington
laughed.

"Indeed! You'd have a time of it."

"I dare say. But there's the breakfast waiting."

Toasts and good wishes, how easy they are to give!

At the church the women cried a little. Women cry when they are happy,
they cry when they are no