there and helped. He meant no harm."

"Oh, I know, Jocelyn. But he is such a wonderful man. Only another
man, I guess, can know what a fine chap he is. And I thought if he did
like you I couldn't stand in your way. I found out, of course, that I
was mistaken. The minister doesn't care anything about girls. But
that wasn't all. You know, Jocelyn, I'm Uncle Roger's own nephew but I
bear his name because he legally gave it to me and because I have no
name of my own. I was a fatherless baby and a girl like you ought to
be courted by a better man than I am."

It was costing David Allan something to tell the girl in his arms all
that. She guessed how the telling must hurt the boy, for she stopped
it with a little, tender laugh.

"But, David dear, I knew all that the day you took me to the Decoration
Day exercises. Grandma Wentworth told me. She said she knew you'd
likely tell me yourself some day but she said that she liked you and
she noticed that people who liked you always liked you a little better
after they heard that."

He sat still, overwhelmed with her sweetness. Then, "Jocelyn, is it
only liking?"

Her answer came like a soft note of joy.

"No, David. It's something bigger than liking and when you wouldn't
speak to me that afternoon you darkened all my world."

She had not shed a tear through all those lonely days but now she
buried her face in David's breast and cried bitterly.

And then it was that David kissed his sweetheart and the touch of her
answering lips healed forever the dull ache that had gnawed at his
heart ever since he was old enough to understand the story of his
cheated childhood.

They sat in the soft darkness of the night that was full of autumn
sighs, a night that stirred in their hearts wistful longings for a low,
snug roof singing with rain and a drowsy little home fire beneath it.

When they had sat long enough to remember their great hour forever and
had repeated the litany of love to each other till they sensed its
wonder, David said regretfully:

"And now I must take you to your mother. And Jocelyn, I'm terribly
afraid of that mother of yours."

Jocelyn laughed.

"Why, David, mother isn't as bad as all that. And she likes you. She
said you made her think of father. And, David, she's always given me
everything I've honestly wanted and she could give. She hasn't been
out much here. She hasn't cared to do much of anything since father
died. But in the cit