ys end, as in the case of the Ardens,
with a disappointment and a grief so bitter as to make the self-spending
seem all in vain.

For the over-study of those two years proved too much for Henry Arden's
health. It was not hard study alone; he stinted himself in food, in
firing as well; he exacted every possible exertion from his mind, and
systematically neglected his body. The examinations were brilliantly
passed; he was ordained; he received a "call" to Little Upshire, the
village nearest to North Tolland; there was a pretty wedding in the old
Van Vliet mansion on Second Avenue, at which Kate Van Vliet, herself
just engaged to Courtenay Gray, acted as bridesmaid; and then the
cousins parted. They only met once again, when Mrs. Arden came down from
the country to see her cousin married. Henry did not come with her; he
was not very well, she explained, and she must hurry back.

That was the beginning of a long wasting illness. Some spring of
vitality seemed to have been broken during those two terrible years at
the theological seminary; and though Henry Arden lived on, and even held
his parish for several years, he was never fit for any severe study or
labor. The last three years of his life were spent in the old farm-house
at North Tolland, where his aunt Myra, a spare, sinewy, capable old
maid, was keeping house for his father. Mrs. Arden had died soon after
her son's illness began; her heart was "kind of broken," the neighbors
said, and perhaps it was.

And little Candace and her mother lived on with the old people after the
long, sorrowful nursing was done, and another gray headstone had been
placed beside the rest in the Arden lot in the North Tolland graveyard,
having carved upon it, "Sacred to the memory of the Rev. Henry Arden,
aged thirty-four. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be His Holy name." There seemed nothing else for them to do but to live
on where they were. Mrs. Gray was in China with her husband, who at that
time was the resident partner in a well-known firm of tea-importers.
Aunt Van Vliet had gone to Europe after her daughter's marriage. There
was no one to come to the aid of the drooping young widow, and carry her
away from the lonely life and the sad memories which were slowly killing
her. For her child's sake she did her best to rally; but her strength
had been severely taxed during her husband's illness, and dying was
easier than living; so she died when Candace was just eig