in what her friends offered and urged. She represented
to her that they must at least wait to hear from Mr. Thayne; there
might be something coming from the West; and it would be cruel to
hurry her mother into a life which could not but afflict her, until
an absolute necessity should be upon them.

She bade Rodney be patient yet a few weeks more, and to leave it to
her to write to his father. She did write: but she also put Rodney's
letter in.

"Things which _are_ might as well, and more truly, be taken into
account, and put in their proper tense," she urged, to Mr. Sherrett.
"There is a bond between these two lives which neither you nor I
have the making or the timing of. It will assert itself; it will
modify everything. This is just what the Lord has given Rodney to
do. It is not your plan, or authority, but this in his heart, which
has set him to work, and made him save his money. Why not let them
begin to live the life while it is yet alive? It wears by waiting;
it cannot help it. You must not expect a miracle of your boy; you
must take the motive while it is fresh, and let it work in God's
way. The power is there; but you must let the wheels be put in gear.
Simply, I advise you to permit the engagement, and the marriage. If
you do not, I think you will rob them of a part of their real
history which they have a right to. Marriage is a making of life
together; not a taking of it after it is made."

It was February when this letter was sent out.

One day in the middle of the month, Desire Ledwith, Hazel
Ripwinkley, and Sylvie had business with Luclarion in Neighbor
Street. There was work to carry; a little basket of things for the
fine laundry; some bakery orders to give. There was always Luclarion
herself to see. Just now, besides and especially, they were all
interested in Ray Ingraham's rooms that were preparing in the next
house to the Neighbors; a house which Mr. Geoffrey and others had
bought, enlarged, and built up; fitting it in comfortable suites for
housekeeping, at rents of from twenty-five to thirty dollars a
month, each. They were as complete and substantial in all their
appointments as apartments as the Commonwealth or the Berkeley;
there was only no magnificence, and there was no "locality" to pay
for. The locality was to be ministered to and redeemed, by the very
presence of this growth of pure and pleasant and honorable living in
its midst. For the most part, those who took up an abiding here ha