dies, suggest schemes for her benevolent desires, and could then
make others work for her, and even work himself. People usually loved
Philip, even while they criticised him; but Hope loved him first, and
then could not criticise him at all.

Nature seems always planning to equalize characters, and to protect our
friends from growing too perfect for our deserts. Love, for instance, is
apt to strengthen the weak, and yet sometimes weakens the strong. Under
its influence Hope sometimes appeared at disadvantage. Had the object of
her love been indifferent, the result might have been otherwise, but her
ample nature apparently needed to contract itself a little, to find room
within Philip's heart. Not that in his presence she became vain or petty
or jealous; that would have been impossible. She only grew credulous and
absorbed and blind. A kind of gentle obstinacy, too, developed itself
in her nature, and all suggestion of defects in him fell off from her as
from a marble image of Faith. If he said or did anything, there was no
appeal; that was settled, let us pass to something else.

I almost blush to admit that Aunt Jane--of whom it could by no means
be asserted that she was a saintly lady, but only a very charming
one--rather rejoiced in this transformation.

"I like it better, my dear," she said, with her usual frankness, to
Kate. "Hope was altogether too heavenly for my style. When she first
came here, I secretly thought I never should care anything about her.
She seemed nothing but a little moral tale. I thought she would not last
me five minutes. But now she is growing quite human and ridiculous about
that Philip, and I think I may find her very attractive indeed."

VI. "SOME LOVER'S CLEAR DAY."

"HOPE!" said Philip Malbone, as they sailed together in a little boat
the next morning, "I have come back to you from months of bewildered
dreaming. I have been wandering,--no matter where. I need you. You
cannot tell how much I need you."

"I can estimate it," she answered, gently, "by my need of you."

"Not at all," said Philip, gazing in her trustful face. "Any one whom
you loved would adore you, could he be by your side. You need nothing.
It is I who need you."

"Why?" she asked, simply.

"Because," he said, "I am capable of behaving very much like a fool.
Hope, I am not worthy of you; why do you love me? why do you trust me?"

"I do not know how I learned to love you," said Hope. "It is a blessing
that w