four times."

Mrs. Gerhardt shook her head.

"What is it?" said Gerhardt, who had been hearing the conversation
from the adjoining room, and now came out.

"Oh, nothing," said the mother, who hated to explain the
significance which the Senator's personality had come to have in their
lives. "A man frightened them when they were bringing the coal."

The arrival of the Christmas presents later in the evening threw
the household into an uproar of excitement. Neither Gerhardt nor the
mother could believe their eyes when a grocery wagon halted in front
of their cottage and a lusty clerk began to carry in the gifts. After
failing to persuade the clerk that he had made a mistake, the large
assortment of good things was looked over with very human glee.

"Just you never mind," was the clerk's authoritative words. "I know
what I'm about. Gerhardt, isn't it? Well, you're the people."

Mrs. Gerhardt moved about, rubbing her hands in her excitement, and
giving vent to an occasional "Well, isn't that nice now!"

Gerhardt himself was melted at the thought of the generosity of the
unknown benefactor, and was inclined to lay it all to the goodness of
a great local mill owner, who knew him and wished him well. Mrs.
Gerhardt tearfully suspected the source, but said nothing. Jennie
knew, by instinct, the author of it all.

The afternoon of the day after Christmas Brander encountered the
mother in the hotel, Jennie having been left at home to look after the
house.

"How do you do, Mrs. Gerhardt," he exclaimed genially extending his
hand. "How did you enjoy your Christmas?"

Poor Mrs. Gerhardt took it nervously; her eyes filled rapidly with
tears.

"There, there," he said, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't cry.
You mustn't forget to get my laundry to-day."

"Oh no, sir," she returned, and would have said more had he not
walked away.

From this on, Gerhardt heard continually of the fine Senator at the
hotel, how pleasant he was, and how much he paid for his washing. With
the simplicity of a German workingman, he was easily persuaded that
Mr. Brander must be a very great and a very good man.

Jennie, whose feelings needed no encouragement in this direction,
was more than ever prejudiced in his favor.

There was developing in her that perfection of womanhood, the full
mold of form, which could not help but attract any man. Already she
was well built, and tall for a girl. Had she been dressed in the
trailing skirts of a wo