uess SO."

They spoke of Captain Zelotes and Olive and of their grief and
discouragement when the news of Albert's supposed death reached them.

"Do you know," said Labe, "I believe Helen Kendall's comin' there for a
week did 'em more good than anything else. She got away from her soldier
nursin' somehow--must have been able to pull the strings consider'ble
harder'n the average to do it--and just came down to the Snow place and
sort of took charge along with Rachel. Course she didn't live there, her
father thought she was visitin' him, I guess likely, but she was with
Cap'n Lote and Olive most of the time. Rachel says she never made
a fuss, you understand, just was there and helped and was quiet and
soft-spoken and capable and--and comfortin', that's about the word, I
guess. Rachel always thought a sight of Helen afore that, but since then
she swears by her."

That evening--or, rather, that night, for they did not leave the sitting
room until after twelve--Mrs. Snow heard her grandson walking the floor
of his room, and called to ask if he was sick.

"I'm all right, Grandmother," he called in reply. "Just taking a little
exercise before turning in, that's all. Sorry if I disturbed you."

The exercise was, as a matter of fact, almost entirely mental, the
pacing up and down merely an unconscious physical accompaniment. Albert
Speranza was indulging in introspection. He was reviewing and assorting
his thoughts and his impulses and trying to determine just what they
were and why they were and whither they were tending. It was a mental
and spiritual picking to pieces and the result was humiliating and in
its turn resulted in a brand-new determination.

Ever since his meeting with Helen, a meeting which had been quite
unpremeditated, he had thought of but little except her. During his talk
with her in the parsonage sitting room he had been--there was no use
pretending to himself that it was otherwise--more contented with the
world, more optimistic, happier, than he had been for months, it seemed
to him for years. Even while he was speaking to her of his uneasiness
and dissatisfaction he was dimly conscious that at that moment he was
less uneasy and less dissatisfied, conscious that the solid ground was
beneath his feet at last, that here was the haven after the storm, here
was--

He pulled up sharply. This line of thought was silly, dangerous, wicked.
What did it mean? Three days before, only three days, he had left
Ma