ly that it had lost its reticence
and its secrecy with the passing of its inflexible dogmas?

"Why, certainly you must go if you would care to," he answered.

"Perhaps Jenny will come over from Bryn Mawr to join us. The dear child
was so disappointed that she couldn't come home for Christmas."

"If I'd known in time that she wasn't coming, I'd have found a way of
getting down just for dinner with you. I hope you weren't alone,
Virginia."

"Oh, no, Miss Priscilla came to spend the day with me. You know she used
to take dinner with us every Christmas at the rectory."

A troubled look clouded his face. "Jenny ought to have been here," he
said, and asked suddenly, as if it were a relief to him to change the
subject: "Have you had news of Harry?"

The light which the name of Harry always brought to her eyes shone there
now, enriching their faded beauty. "He writes to me every week. You know
he hasn't missed a single Sunday letter since he first went off to
school. He is wild about Oxford, but I think he gets a little homesick
sometimes, though of course he'd never say so."

"He'll do well, that boy. The stuff is in him."

"I'm sure he's a genius if there ever was one, Oliver. Only yesterday
Professor Trimble was telling me that Harry was far and away the most
brilliant pupil he had ever had."

"Well, he's something to be proud of. And now what about Lucy? Is she
still satisfied with Craven?"

"She never writes about anything else except about her house. Her
marriage seems to have turned out beautifully. You remember I wrote you
that she was perfectly delighted with her stepchildren, and she really
appears to be as happy as the day is long."

"You never can tell. I thought she'd be back again before two months
were up."

"I know. We all prophesied dreadful things--even Susan."

"That reminds me--I came down on the train with John Henry, and he said
that Uncle Cyrus was breaking rapidly."

"He has never been the same since his wife's death," replied Virginia,
who was a victim of this sentimental fallacy. "It's strange--isn't
it?--because we used to think they got on so badly."

"I wonder if it is really that? Well, is there any other news? Has
anything else happened?"

With his back to the fire, he stood looking down on her with kindly,
questioning eyes. He had done his best; from the moment when he had
entered the room and met the touching brightness in her face, he had
struggled to be as natural, to be as