friends.

Now Charlie was gone, and Reggie had promised him to seek out some
lonely fellow too, and try to help him and cheer him and lead him
nearer to Christ. He had prayed to be shown the right fellow, but
among all his acquaintances there was no one lonely; one name, and one
name only, seemed laid upon his heart, the name of Mr. Gray, his own
Manager and master!

But as yet Reggie had done nothing more than to pray for him earnestly
and regularly, for there seemed nothing else possible. For how could
a junior Bank clerk seek out the companionship of his superior and
invite him to supper or to cycle or to go with him to church?

He had been asked to help him now, and if those ways in which he had
wished to help some fellow had seemed impossible, in this case how
much more impossible were these circumstances? For to help in this way
could only bring the downfall of all Reggie's hopes of promotion, and
put off that day when he could tell Gertrude that his home was ready
for her.

Yet with all these thoughts surging through his brain, Reggie felt
that the call of duty had come to him, and to refuse would be to
refuse to take up his Cross and follow Christ. As he took four cups
of strong black coffee back to the summer-house, he realised that the
Cross is the place of suffering and of death.

He had scarcely been five minutes on his errand and the little party
in the summer-house had neither been added to nor diminished, and hope
had brought a little colour back to Mrs. Gray's woe-begone face.

A simple straightforwardness was one of Reggie's characteristics. He
put a cup of coffee into the manager's hand.

"You'd better drink it, Mr. Gray," he said quietly, "it's--it's
refreshing, and then if you'd just take Mrs. Gray home--I'm sure she
would feel better at home, and the bride has gone, so we can all slip
away together. People are beginning to go now."

Mrs. Gray hated black coffee, but she drank her cup bravely, and
looked all the better for it too.

"That stuff is refreshing," said Howard, suddenly, with a nod towards
the empty cups, as the four left the summer-house, to make their
farewells. "I felt rotten, but I feel as right as a trivet now."

Mr. Gray said nothing. He knew perfectly well that he was being
helped, and his pride fiercely resented it, but Reggie's three years
of quiet faithful work had had its influence, and the clinging touch
of Mrs. Gray's hand on his arm softened him, and he said to h