life, and we have neither of us ever said much as to
how we felt to each other, but--I never loved you as much as I love
you now, Eunice, and I've taken it into my head to say it."

Eunice's lips quivered a little and her eyes reddened. "There ain't a
woman in Amity who has had so good a husband as I have all these
years, if you don't go to meeting," she replied. Then she added,
after a second's pause: "I didn't know as you did feel just as you
used to, Henry. I didn't know as any man did. I know I've lost my
looks, and--"

"I can seem to see your looks, brighter than ever they were, in your
heart," said Henry. He colored himself a little at his own sentiment.
Then he pulled her face down to his again and gave her a second kiss.
"Now run along to your meeting," he said. "Have you got enough on?
The wind sounds cold."

"Yes," replied Eunice. "This cape's real thick. I put a new lining in
it this winter, you know, and, besides, I've got my crocheted jacket
under it. I'm as warm as toast."

Eunice, after she had gone out in the keen night air with her
sister-in-law and her niece, reflected with more uneasiness than
pleasure upon her husband's unwonted behavior.

"Does it seem to you that Henry looks well lately?" she asked the
elder Maria, as they hurried along.

"Yes; why not?" returned Maria.

"I don't know. It seems to me he's been losing flesh."

"Nonsense!" said Maria. "I never saw him looking better than he does
now. I was thinking only this morning that he was making a better,
healthier old man than he was as a young man. But I do wish he would
go to meeting. I don't think his mind is right about some things.
Suppose folks do have troubles. They ought to be led to the Lord by
them, instead of pulling back. Henry hasn't had anything more to
worry him, nor half as much, as most men. He don't take things right.
He ought to go to meeting."

"I guess he's just as good as a good many who do go to meeting,"
returned Eunice, with unwonted spirit.

"I don't feel competent to judge as to that," replied Maria, with a
tone of aggravating superiority. Then she added, "'By their works ye
shall know them.'"

"I would give full as much for Henry's chances as for some who go to
meeting every Sunday of their lives," said Eunice, with still more
spirit. "And as for trials, they weigh heavier on some than on
others."

Then young Maria, who had been listening uneasily, broke in. She felt
herself a strong partisan of her