her waist.

"I mean, have you told him about China?" she went on, anxiously.

"Yes"--with a smile--"and that we simply will not let him give us any of
his hard-earned money."

"No, indeed, brother John," Dora cried. "Not a penny of your money will
I take after all you have done for me. You must get married--you must be
sensible and find you a good wife. You will need all the money you have,
too. It is bad enough--my leaving you like this--without taking your
savings. We simply won't hear to it, will we, Harold?"

"No," the other answered, firmly. "We'd be acting a lie if we teach
others that poverty and humility are a blessing while having a nest-egg
of our own."

"Now hear from me." Dora tried to speak with amusing lightness. "While
you were here, Harold, exploding your bomb, I've been telling your
mother. She is down in her room, crying her heart out. She takes it very
hard. It has been the pride of her life that you are a minister, but she
never dreamed that she'd miss hearing you preach every Sunday of her
life, and help you with your work besides. That's the mother of it, and
this is really the hardest blow she's ever had."

There was a sound of a dog barking down-stairs. It was John's pet
fox-terrier, Binks.

"He is after a rat," Dora said, forcing a smile to her set face and
somehow not wanting to meet the eyes of the stricken man.

"Yes"--John rose--"it is time for me to take him out. He stays in too
much." John knew that he was expected to say more on the other subject,
but all at once his tongue had become tied. An indescribable despair
incased him like walls of sinister darkness. The young couple seemed to
feel his mood and to be baffled by it, standing in the presence of his
disappointment as if conscious of actual guilt in causing it. Neither
said anything, and John got his hat and descended to his dog.

They heard him whistling to Binks as if nothing unusual had happened.
They heard the yelping animal scampering up the basement steps to meet
him. Creeping wordless, and hand in hand, to the stairs, they saw John
bend down and take the dog in his arms. Binks was licking the side of
his face, and John seemed unconscious of it. The mute watchers heard the
front door close after him. Dora turned back into John's room. She was
wiping her eyes. Harold took her into his arms.

"Don't, don't, dear!" he said, tenderly. "It can't be helped, you know.
He will suffer--another will suffer, but it has to be.