and it made his
heart ache and his courage faint to see the love-light in her eyes--and
she as far away from him as Heaven from hell, far away in a world from
which he was excluded. He and Sophie left her at her father's and he
took Sophie home.

Sophie felt that she had done a fair evening's work--not progress, but
progress in sight. "At least," she reflected, "he's seeing that he
isn't in it with Hilda and never can be. I must hurry her on and get
her married to that fool. A pair of fools!"

Heilig found his mother waiting up for him. As she saw his expression,
anxiety left her face, but cast a deeper shadow over her heart. She
felt his sorrow as keenly as he--she who would have laid down her life
for him gladly.

"Don't lose heart, my big boy," she said, patting him on the shoulder
as he bent to kiss her.

At this he dropped down beside her and hid his face in her lap and
cried like the boy-man that he was. "Ach, Gott, mother, I love her
SO!" he sobbed.

Her tears fell on the back of his head. Her boy--who had gone so
bravely to work when the father was killed at his machine, leaving them
penniless; her boy--who had laughed and sung and whistled and diffused
hope and courage and made her feel that the burden was not a burden but
a joy for his strong, young shoulders.

"Courage, beloved!" she said. "Hilda is a good girl. All will yet be
well." And she felt it--God would not be God if He could let this
heart of gold be crushed to powder.

III

FORTUNE FAVORS THE IMPUDENT

Like all people who lead useful lives and neither have nor pretend to
have acquired tastes for fine-drawn emotion, Otto and Hilda indulged in
little mooning. They put aside their burdens--hers of dread, his of
despair--and went about the work that had to be done and that
healthfully filled almost all their waking moments; and when bed-time
came their tired bodies refused either to sit up with their brains or
to let their brains stay awake. But it was gray and rainy for Hilda
and black night for Otto.

On Sunday morning he rose at half-past three, instead of at four, his
week-day rising time. Many of his hard-working customers were astir
betimes on Sunday to have the longer holiday. As they would spend the
daylight hours in the country and would not reach home until after the
shop had closed, they bought the supplies for a cold or warmed-up
supper before starting. Otto looked so sad--usually he was in high
spirits--