never met a young
man with such a kind heart as Bauer."

Helen did not answer. She sat with her hands clasped over her knees,
looking off through the window. At last she rose and went into her room,
and returned almost immediately.

"Mother," she said, with a note of hesitation that was new to her,
"would it be all right for me to help Mr. Bauer out of my allowance? If
the rest of the family is going to help I'd like to give twenty-five
dollars."

She put the money into her mother's lap and sat down in front of her.

Mrs. Douglas was startled at the girl's perfectly transparent act. She
thought she knew Helen, but for a moment she questioned her own insight.
Then she did what she had always done in the intimacy she had encouraged
between herself and her children.

"Why do you want to do this, Helen?"

"Because--because I can't help feeling------"

"Well?"

"I don't love him, mother,--no,--I am sure of myself. But it seems
dreadful to think of him dying, just because of the need of a little
money. I have never been sick. I wonder how I should feel to face such a
fate. I believe it would drive me crazy."

"But how do you think Mr. Bauer will understand your gift? If he is so
sensitive as Walter says------"

Over Helen's face the warm colour swept.

"Why does he need to know? We are all going to help, aren't we? But we
don't need to tell him. I would not have him know for the world."

"Wait till father comes home. We will talk it over with him," said
Esther after a pause. "I don't question your sincerity. It is a terrible
loss to lose the physical strength and face death at a sure distance.
Poor Bauer! And all that family trouble, too. He never hinted at that
when he was here."

Helen recalled her innocent questioning of Bauer about his people and
the silence he had maintained at the time. In the light of what she knew
now, the figure of the German student assumed a tragic character,
invested with deep pathos, and she had to confess that it was treading
on dangerous ground to dwell too long on the picture. Still she asserted
stoutly that her feeling was one of simple friendship, and even went so
far as to anticipate a possible question again on her mother's part.

"You must not think, Mommy, that I have any other feeling for him. That
is not possible. The man I marry must have money. And poor Mr. Bauer has
lost all of his. That is the reason I am willing to help him. Money
seems so absolutely necessary in