with a little tremor in his voice--"I've only got Liddy to care
for me in my old age, and it's hard to give her up. Can't you believe
what I offer is wisest and best? Would it make you feel any better to
give me a note and pay it when you chose? I would never ask you for it."

That evening when the lovers sat under the freshly leaved maples, he
told her what her father had offered.

"I've known it for some time," she said, "and I feared you would feel
hurt and refuse it, and hurt father, and I hope you did not. Put
yourself in father's place," she continued seriously, "and tell me how
you would feel. Remember that I am all he has to love and care for him,
and he is very dear to me. He would not hurt you for the world, and what
he thinks is the best way I believe _is_ the best."

"I will think it over," was Manson's comment. "It's so sudden and
overwhelming I do not know what to say or do. I can't see a way out of
it, either," he went on reflectively. "I want you and I want a home to
keep you in, all our own, but how, or where it's coming from, I can't
see. Then it's too much to ask him to give you up."

He paused, and leaning over and resting his face on his hands, continued
rather sadly:

"I guess it would have been just as well if you had left me to die in
the hospital."

It was a cruel remark and he saw it in an instant, for he said quickly:
"Forgive me, I didn't mean that. I've got you and two hands to work
with, and that's hope enough. Give me time and I'll solve the problem,
never fear!"

When they parted she put one arm around his neck and whispered:

"It's the old vocation enigma over again, Charlie, isn't it? But don't
let it make you miserable, and don't ever say such a thing as that you
just said again. Do you know, when I came to you in the hospital that
morning, I had not slept one moment for two long days and nights! Now
try and be happy to pay me for it, and remember:

"'The happiest life that ever was led
Is always to court and never to wed.'"

Then she kissed him, in her tender way, and if he did not think she was
right, it was because he was like most young men who don't know when
they are well off and happy.

CHAPTER XXI.

BLUE HILL.

Three years from the day Manson led Liddy to the carriage, blinded by
tears and heart broken at the separation in store, they once more
visited that dearly loved spot. It was a place more sacred to them than
a church, for it had been hal