ance we fail to
harmonize with them, be crushed for our ignorance--our ignorance
which is not of our own making?"

"By chance--by chance," she repeated, "but if there be great fixed
laws, how can there be any--chance?"

The thought was hopeless. She turned in her despair and hid her face.
And then out of the darkness came the strong fine face of Clay
Westmore--and his words: "We must all work--it is life's badge of
nobility."

How clearly and calmly they came to her. And then her heart
fluttered. Suppose Clay loved her--suppose this was her solution? He
had never pressed his love on her. Did he think a woman could be
loved that way--scientifically--as coal and iron are discovered?

She finally slept, her arms around her little sister. But the last
recollection she had was Clay's fine face smiling at her through the
darkness and saying: "We must all work--it is life's badge of
nobility."

It was Monday morning, and she would take Lily with her to the mill;
for the child's work at the spinning frames was to begin that day.
There was no alternative. Again the great unknown law rushed her
along. Her father had signed them both, and in a few days their home
would be sold.

They were late at the mill, but the little one, as she trudged along
by the side of her sister, was happier than she had been since her
old nurse had left. It was great fun for her, this going to the mill
with her big sister.

The mill had been throbbing and humming long before they reached it.
Helen turned Lily over to the floor manager, after kissing her
good-bye, and bade her do as she was told. Twice again she kissed
her, and then with a sob hurried away to her own room.

Travis was awaiting her in the hall. She turned pale and then crimson
when she saw him. And yet, when she ventured to look at him as she
was passing, she was stopped with the change which lay on his face.
It was a sad smile he gave her, sad but determined. And in the
courtly bow was such a look of tenderness that with fluttering heart
and a strange new feeling of upliftedness--a confidence in him for
the first time, she stopped and gave him her hand with a grateful
smile. It was a simple act and so pretty that the sadness went from
Travis' face as he said:

"I was not going to stop you--this is kind of you. Saturday, I
thought you feared me."

"Yes," she smiled, "but not now--not when you look like that."

"Have I changed so much since then?" and he looked at her curio