he like your choice."

"Mrs. Marx," said the poor young man, leaving the lichens, "they bother
me to death!"

"Ah? How is that?"

"Always watching, and hanging around, and giving a fellow no chance for
his life, and putting in their word. They call themselves very wise,
but I think it is the other thing."

"They don't approve, then?"

"I don't want to marry money!" cried Tom; "and I don't care for
fashionable girls. I'm tired of 'em. Lois is worth the whole lot. Such
absurd stuff! And she is handsomer than any girl that was in town last
winter."

"They want a fashionable girl," said Mrs. Marx calmly.

"Well, you see," said Tom, "they live for that. If an angel was to come
down from heaven, they would say her dress wasn't cut right, and they
wouldn't ask her to dinner!"

"I don't suppose they'd know how to talk to her either, if they did,"
said Mrs. Marx. "It would be uncomfortable--for them; I don't suppose
an angel can be uncomfortable. But Lois ain't an angel. I guess you'd
better give it up, Mr. Caruthers."

Tom turned towards her a dismayed kind of look, but did not speak.

"You see," Mrs. Marx went on, "things haven't gone very far. Lois is
all right; and you'll come back to life again. A fish that swims in
fresh water couldn't go along very well with one that lives in the
salt. That's how I look at it. Lois is one sort, and you're another. I
don't know but both sorts are good; but they are different, and you
can't make 'em alike."

"I would never want her to be different!" burst out Tom.

"Well, you see, she ain't your sort exactly," Mrs. Marx added, but not
as if she were depressed by the consideration. "And then, Lois is
religious."

"You don't think that is a difficulty? Mrs. Marx, I am not a religious
man myself; at least I have never made any profession; but I assure you
I have a great respect for religion."

"That is what folks say of something a great way off, and that they
don't want to come nearer."

"My mother and sister are members of the church; and I should like my
wife to be, too."

"Why?"

"I told you, I have a great respect for religion; and I believe in it
especially for women."

"I don't see why what's good for them shouldn't be good for you."

"That need be no hindrance," Tom urged.

"Well, I don' know. I guess Lois would think it was. And maybe you
would think it was, too,--come to find out. I guess you'd better let
things be, Mr. Caruthers."

Tom looked very gloom