at it will end well."

"I know not, Cousin Peter." Her face became thoughtful, and she added,
with some seriousness:

"The thing we intend is sure to bring with it lots of things we did
not intend, and often of far superior importance; but----"

"Our times are always in His hand. We do not shape our own destiny,
cousin."

"Oh, indeed! I should like to dispute that point with you; but the
train is no respecter of persons, so we must let its settlement wait
on our convenience."

With these words she waved an adieu to Adriana, and Peter drove her
away. Then Adriana sat down to try to realize the change that had so
suddenly come over her circumstances. Her first thought was the glad
one that she had voluntarily made her father happy before this
invitation came. How mean she would have felt if she had not done so!
He might then have been pleased to get rid of her sad face and
melancholy ways; and she could not have written to him about her
pleasures in New York. She would have been ashamed to do so. And on
many other accounts, she understood at this hour that unselfishness
pays no one so well as it pays those who practice it.

It was Friday afternoon, and the interval was full of pleasant talk
and anticipations; though naturally on the Sabbath the tone of both
was subdued to the day and its holy observances. In the bare old Dutch
Reformed Church, Adriana was an object of interest to the maidens
worshipping there; almost as much so as if she were going to be
married. A strange destiny had fallen upon this girl, who had been
their playmate and schoolmate, and they could not help wondering what
quality she possessed capable of attracting to her so much good
fortune. She was pretty, but then they also were pretty; some of them
lived in larger and finer homes than Adriana's; and as for her plain
tweed gowns, they thought their own styles far superior.

"It must have been something she learned at college," said one
speculative girl, in their future discussion of this subject. "No,"
said another, "it is the Dutch in her. Mother says the Van Hoosens
have always stuck together. There never was a poor one among them, or,
if there was, they all helped him until he could stand on his feet and
fight his own battle."

And certainly Alida Van Hoosen's interest in Antony and Adriana--only
very distant relatives--seemed to warrant this explanation. For a
good family tree has far-spreading branches and roots, and the
crown of leave