intment. Destiny introduced us. Neither of us will forget, and
somewhere, some day, I shall be waiting, and he will come."

Thus this daughter of sunshine and hope answered herself; and why not?
All good things come to those who can wait in sweet tranquillity for
them, and seldom does Fortune fail to bring love and heart's-ease upon
the changeful stream of changeful days to those who trust her for them.

On the following morning, when the two girls entered the parlor, they
found the Judge smoking there. He had already breakfasted, and looked
over the three or four newspapers whose opinions he thought worthy of
his consideration. They were lying in a state of confusion at his side,
and Ethel glanced at them curiously.

"Did any of the papers speak of the singing before the Holland House?"
she asked.

"Yes. I think reporters must be ubiquitous. All my papers had some sort
of a notice of the affair."

"What do they say?"

"One gave the bare circumstances of the case; another indulged in what
was supposed to be humorous description; a third thought it might have
been the result of a bet or dare; a fourth was of the opinion that
conspiracy between the old beggar and the young man was not unlikely,
and credited the exhibition as a cleverly original way of obtaining
money. But all agreed in believing the singer to be a member of some
opera company now in the city."

Ethel was indignant. "It was neither 'bet' nor 'dare' nor 'conspiracy,'"
she said. "I saw the singer as he came walking rapidly down the avenue,
and he looked as happy and careless as a boy whistling on a country
lane. When his eyes fell on the old man he hesitated, just a moment,
and then spoke to him. I am sure they were absolute strangers to each
other."

"But how can you be sure of a thing like that, Ethel?"

"I don't know 'how,' Ruth, but all the same, I am sure. And as for it
being a new way of begging, that is not correct. Not many years ago, one
of the De Reszke brothers led a crippled soldier into a Paris cafe, and
sang the starving man into comfort in twenty minutes."

"And the angelic Parepa Rosa did as much for a Mexican woman, whom she
found in the depths of sorrow and poverty--brought her lifelong comfort
with a couple of her songs. Is it not likely, then, that the gallant
knight of the Holland House is really a member of some opera company,
that he knew of these examples and followed them?"

"It is not unlikely, Ruth, yet I do not believ