throwing the barriers time must otherwise gradually wear
away, Reuben May and Joan Hocken have (in the week which has intervened
between her arrival and this day of trial) become more intimate and
thoroughly acquainted than if in an ordinary way they had known each
other for years. A stranger in a large city, with not one familiar face
to greet her, who does not know the terrible feeling of desolation which
made poor Joan hurry through the crowded streets, shrinking away from
their bustle and throng toward Reuben, the one person she had to turn to
for sympathy, advice, assistance and consolation? With that spirit of
perfect trust which her own large heart gave her the certain assurance
of receiving, Joan placed implicit reliance in all Reuben said and did;
and seeing this, and receiving an inward satisfaction from the sight,
Reuben involuntarily slipped into a familiarity of speech and manner
very opposed to the stiff reserve he usually maintained toward
strangers.

Ten days were given before the day on which Jerrem was to die, and
during this time, through the various interests raised in his behalf, no
restriction was put upon the intercourse between him and his friends; so
that, abandoning everything for the poor soul's welfare, Reuben, Joan
and Jerrem spent hour after hour in the closest intercourse. Happily, in
times of great extremity the power of realizing our exact situation is
mostly denied to us; and in the case of Joan and Jerrem, although
surrounded by the terrors and within the outposts of that dreaded end,
it was nothing unfrequent to hear a sudden peal of laughter, which often
would have as sudden an end in a great burst of tears.

To point to hopes and joys beyond the grave when every thought is
centred and fixed on this life's interests and keen anxieties is but a
fruitless, vain endeavor; and Reuben had to try and rest contented in
the assurance of Jerrem's perfect forgiveness and good-will to all who
had shown him any malice or ill-feeling--to draw some satisfaction from
the unselfish love he showed to Joan and the deep gratitude he now
expressed to Uncle Zebedee.

What would become of them? he often asked when some word of Joan's
revealed the altered aspect of their affairs; and then, overcome by the
helplessness of their forlorn condition, he would entreat Reuben to
stand by them--not to forget Joan, not to forsake her. And Reuben,
strangely moved by sight of this poor giddy nature's overwrought
e