ly thrown together, and was then simply bright and laughing
and friendly. Janet says that Nellie seemed inexpressibly relieved by
the change in his manner. Come, old fellow, cheer up and get well, and
let us have you out in the sunshine a day or two, and then we'll see if
a few long talks with her won't help matters. She's a child yet, and
almost too young to fall in love with anybody. You know she has seen
next to nothing of the world."

"That is just what stings and torments me so, Mrs. Miller," answered
McLean, with unexpected energy. "That is what weighs upon my heart and
soul. She has seen very little of the world. She is young,
inexperienced, and motherless. Her father does not like me, and I know
it, and simply because he saw my deep interest in her, and, having
other views, he was determined to break it off in the bud. What
possible right have I--poor, friendless, utterly without position or
influence, saddled with this mountain of uncontracted debt--to seek to
win such a girl as she for my wife? What have I to offer but misfortune
and trouble? No, Mrs. Miller, it is all useless. If I have stood
between her and such a future as he could offer her, God forgive me. I
did not know the millstone that was to be hung about my neck. I did not
dream of his existence. I just drifted in, and now I could pray heaven
she hasn't."

Again he turned away, with something very like a sob in his weak voice,
and buried his face in his arm.

"Mac," she persisted, "I'm not going to sit here and see you accusing
yourself of wrong-doing in this way. Let me tell you that if she does
care for you, and I believe she does, Nellie Bayard would rather be
your wife in one room and a kitchen than live in opulence in New York
or Chicago. What's more, she would wait for you loyally, faithfully,
until you were thoroughly on your feet again, with this debt paid and a
little laid by. As for Dr. Bayard's plans for her, he is worldly
enough, of course, to seek such wealth as Roswell Holmes's for his
daughter; but the man himself is changing his mind. You should have
seen him devoting himself to Miss Forrest out here one evening. Now,
there's a girl who would appreciate his money and spend it for him like
a duchess."

But McLean was silent.

"Did you get to know her at all well?" asked Mrs. Miller presently.

"Very slightly indeed."

"And yet, living in the same building with her, as you and Mr. Hatton
did, I fancied you would see her quite