-she was twenty-five, mind you--; so she was amused
rather than deceived.

"Well?" she asked, and paused for answer.

"Yes," answered Rita.

They understood each other, if we do not, for Miss Tousy kissed Rita and
then boldly went to Dic and deliberately kissed him. Thereupon Rita
cried, "Oh!" Dic blushed, and all three laughed.

"But I'll leave you to yourselves again," said accommodating Miss Tousy.
"I know you want to be alone."

"Oh, we are through," answered Rita, blushing, and Dic reluctantly
assented. Miss Tousy laughed and asked:--

"Through what?"

Then there was more blushing and more laughing, and Rita replied, "Just
through--that's all."

"Well, I congratulate you," said Miss Tousy, taking Rita's hand, "and am
very happy that I have been the means of bringing you together again.
Take the advice of one who is older than you," continued Miss Tousy, the
old and the wise, "and never, never again allow anything to separate
you. Love is the sweetest blossom of life, whose gentle wings will
always cover you with the aromatic harmony of an everlasting sunlight."
Rita thought the metaphor beautiful, and Dic was too interested to be
critical. Then Rita and Miss Tousy, without any reason at all, began to
weep, and Dic felt as uncomfortable as the tears of two women could make
him.

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT

CHAPTER XV

THE CHRISTMAS GIFT

Dic started home with his heart full of unalloyed happiness; but at the
end of four hours, when he was stabling his horse, the old pain for the
sake of another's sorrow asserted itself, and his happiness seemed to be
a sin. Rita's tender heart also underwent a change while she lay that
night wakeful with joy and gazing into the darkness.

Amid all her joy came the ever recurring vision of Sukey's wretchedness.
While under the convincing influence of her own arguments and Dic's
resistless presence, she had seen but one side of the question,--her
own; but darkness is a great help to the inner sight, and now the other
side of the case had its hearing. She remembered Sukey's letter to Tom,
but she knew the unfortunate girl loved Dic. Was it right, she asked
herself over and over again, was it right that she should be happy at
the cost of another's woe? Then came again the flood of her great
longing--the longing of her whole life--and she tried to tell herself
she did not care who suffered, she intended to be happy. That was the
way of the world, and it should be her wa