if she could be
persuaded that it was for herself and herself alone that he loved her.

"Now if she were a rich woman, she would never believe in his love!" he
thought--"There again comes in the curse of money! Suppose she were
wealthy as women in her rank of life would consider it--suppose that she
had a prosperous farm, and a reliable income of so much per annum, she
would never flatter herself that a man loved her for her own good and
beautiful self--especially a man in the situation of Reay, with only
twenty pounds in the world to last him a year, and nothing beyond it
save the dream of fame! She would think--and naturally too--that he
sought to strengthen and improve his prospects by marrying a woman of
some 'substance' as they call it. And even as it is the whole business
requires careful handling. I myself must be on my guard. But I think I
may give hope to Reay!--indeed I shall try and urge him to speak to her
as soon as possible--before fortune comes to either of them! Love in its
purest and most unselfish form, is such a rare blessing--such a glorious
Angel of the kingdom of Heaven, that we should not hesitate to give it
welcome, or delay in offering it reverence! It is all that makes life
worth living--God knows how fully I have proved it!"

And that night in the quiet darkness of his own little room, he folded
his worn hands and prayed--

"Oh God, before whom I appear as a wasted life, spent with toil in
getting what is not worth the gaining, and that only seems as dross in
Thy sight!--Give me sufficient time and strength to show my gratefulness
to Thee for Thy mercy in permitting me to know the sweetness of Love at
last, and in teaching me to understand, through Thy guidance, that those
who may seem to us the unconsidered and lowly in this world, are often
to be counted among Thy dearest creatures! Grant me but this, O God, and
death when it comes, shall find me ready and resigned to Thy Will!"

Thus he murmured half aloud,--and in the wonderful restfulness which he
obtained by the mere utterance of his thoughts to the Divine Source of
all good, closed his eyes with a sense of abiding joy, and slept
peacefully.

CHAPTER XVIII

And now by slow and beautiful degrees the cold and naked young year grew
warm, and expanded from weeping, shivering infancy into the delighted
consciousness of happy childhood. The first snowdrops, the earliest
aconites, perked up their pretty heads in Mary's cottage gar