Dan; that was the way of it. I saw it and
appreciated it--it meant more to me than I can tell you. I knew exactly
how it was that you started as you did; it was part of your fate; but it
made possible the finer thing. It's nothing in you or what you've done
or may do. But I have my own work to do. I have cut a pattern for my own
life, and I must try to follow it. I think you understand about that--I
told you that night when we talked of our aims and hopes on the campus
at Montgomery that I wanted to do something for the world. And I must
still go on trying to do that. It's a poor, tiny little gleam; but I
must follow the gleam."

"But there's nothing in that that we can't do together. We can go on
seeking it together," he pleaded.

"I hope it may be so. We must go on being the good friends we are now.
You and Aunt Sally are all I have--the best I have. I can't let you
spoil that," she ended firmly, as though, after all, this were the one
important thing.

There was nothing here, he reasoned, that might not be overcome. The
work that she had planned to do imposed no barrier. Men and women were
finding out the joy of striving together; she need give up nothing in
joining her life to his. He touched the hand that lay near and thrilled
to the contact of her lingers.

"Please, Dan!" she pleaded, drawing her hand away. "I mean to go on with
my life as I have begun it. I shall never marry, Dan,--marriage isn't in
my plan at all. But for you the right woman will come some day--I hope
so with all my heart. We must understand all this now. And I must be
sure, oh, very sure, that you know how dear it is to have had you say
these things to me."

"But I shall say them again and always, Sylvia! This was only the
beginning; I had to speak to-night; I came here to say these things to
you. I am able to care for you now--not as I should like to, but I'm
going to succeed. I want to ease the way for you; I mean that you
mustn't go back to teaching this fall!"

"There, you see"--and he knew she smiled in her patient, sweet way that
was dear to him--"you want to stop my work before it's begun! You see
how impossible it would be, Dan!"

"But you can do other things; there are infinite ways in which you can
be of use, doing the things you want to do. The school work is only a
handicap,--drudgery that leads to nothing."

He knew instantly that he had erred; and that he must give her no
opportunity to defend her attitude toward her wor