he way God
looks at it is this, '_Judge this rather that no man put a stumbling
block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Anything whereby
thy brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak._'"

They had reached the Bank and she held out her hand with a sigh.

"Thank you," she said, "well, I'll think about it."

Reggie walked on to the corner of his own road and stood looking down
it distastefully.

Here he was in the middle of Bank holiday afternoon, in his best
clothes, with nowhere to go and no one to speak to, feeling as if his
life and himself and everything else were an utter failure. If he had
only had on his cycling suit, he might have contemplated a ride, but
the thought of turning into his dull lodgings, even to change, was
unbearable, and the writing of a letter to Gertrude, with which he had
beguiled many a lonely hour before, was not possible to-day.

He turned at the sound of quick footsteps behind him, and heard his
name called.

"Why! Mr. Alston!" said the cheerful voice of the Scotch minister's
little wife, "you look as if you belonged to nobody, and nowhere!"

Then, seeing instantly that her words had hit too near the mark, she
added quickly,

"I wish, if you aren't engaged, you would come home to supper with us.
I always feel as if I wanted to be entertained after a wedding, as if
it were very dull to go home to just an ordinary tea, and its being a
Bank holiday seems to emphasise the feeling. Mr. Mackenzie and I were
just saying so, weren't we, Will?"

"That is so," assented Mr. Mackenzie, with his grave smile, "I hear,
Mr. Alston, that you are musical and might have played our organ for
the marriage had we but known it. I have the organ keys, if you would
care to try the instrument. It was unfortunate that our organist was
away. I like a little singing at a wedding."

Reggie's face beamed.

"I'd like to come, awfully," he said, "what time shall I turn up?"

"Why, now!" said Mrs. Mackenzie, "we'll have tea at once and then the
garden-boy shall blow for you, and we'll be audience, and then we can
have supper and talk."

"That's the chief item in the programme, isn't it?" said her husband,
with a twinkle.

Reggie tried to smother a laugh but did not succeed. This unexpected
treat had wonderfully cheered his drooping spirits, and he laughed and
chatted merrily as they walked to the Manse; but beneath the
outward pleasure that the invitation gave him, there was running an
un